A Proclamation by Her Excellency Governor Jane Swift
June 26th, 2002 to be Support of Victims of Torture Day in Massachusetts.

Open Proclamation in a portable format (PDF, 91KB)

Refugee center helps survivors of atrocities worldwide
By Hope Green

BU Bridge | Week of 18 January 2002 · Vol. V, No. 19

No psychiatrist sees tougher cases than Michael Grodin does. One of his current patients is a Hutu woman who fled ethnic strife in Burundi, where civil war has claimed 200,000 lives. Last spring, Tutsi police raped her in front of her 10-year-old son after arresting her husband, a fisherman and former schoolteacher who had been involved with human rights work. She fled to the bush to hide, leaving her son with a neighbor. When she returned to the village, the Tutsis had burned it down, and she found only dead bodies. The woman escaped to Toronto with help from a group of priests and then came to Massachusetts. She still doesn't know the fate of her husband and child. more...