Keith Locke. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey
New Zealand should press the Tongan Government to investigate claims that prisoners arrested during the November riots were abused and tortured, Green MP Keith Locke says.
Tonga's National Centre for Women and Children has issued a report which alleges widespread maltreatment of prisoners after unrest in the capital,
Nuku'alofa.
The centre, which is partly funded by NZAID and combats domestic violence, said its report exposed systematic torture and abuse by Tongan Defence Service personnel and police.
The Tongan Government has said it condemns torture and abuse of prisoners and will look at the report's claims.
Mr Locke, the Greens' foreign affairs spokesman who was in Tonga last week, said the report tallied with what he had been told.
"The pictures I've seen ... they've all got very puffed-up and bruised faces and they didn't just walk into a door or anything ... It all adds to a picture that needs to be investigated."
New Zealand and Australia rushed soldiers and police to Tonga to help to restore order after a pro-democracy protest disintegrated into violence. Several police officers are still there.
The report did not mention any abuse involving foreigners.
"The Government, particularly as it has police and has had military over there, we don't want them to be tainted by what the Tongan military in particular are doing," Mr Locke said.
"I think it's important that the Government look closely at that report and our diplomatic people over there fully investigate what has been going on and express our serious concerns."
Prime Minister Helen Clark and Foreign Minister Winston Peters were unavailable for comment. A spokesman for Defence Minister Phil Goff said there was no evidence New Zealanders were implicated in any way in claims of abuse.
The report said treatment amounting to torture under Tongan and international law had been reported. Injuries included facial cuts, swelling and bruising, ripped ears, broken and missing teeth, split lips and heavily bruised ribs.
"I saw bloody people come into the cells every day. People with smashed faces - it just became normal," one former prisoner said.
Cells were overcrowded - one cell for 16 reportedly had 64 prisoners in it on one day. They lacked bedding and proper toilet facilities. One prisoner estimated that 40 per cent of prisoners in his cell had been subjected to some form of violence during interrogation.
