messages from Merdan Ghappar, a Uighur man, who had been held in custody since January 2020.16 Through smuggled text messages, he described how he was initially imprisoned in a police jail in Kucha. ""I saw 50 to 60 people detained in a small room no bigger than 50 square metres, men on the right, women on the left…Everyone was wearing a so-called 'four-piece suit', a black head sack, handcuffs, leg shackles and an iron chain connecting the cuffs to the shackles." Ghappar claimed that he was forced to wear the restraint device and held in a confined and overcrowded cell with no room to lie down and sleep. "I lifted the sack on my head and told the police officer that the handcuffs were so tight they hurt my wrists…He shouted fiercely at me, saying 'If you remove your hood again, I will beat you to death.' And after that I dared not to talk."17 The whereabouts of Ghappar and circumstances of his detention are currently unknown. 1.2 EQUIPMENT WITH A LEGITIMATE FUNCTION Common forms of law enforcement equipment, such as batons, handcuffs and pepper spray are now standard issue for police forces across the world. While often playing a legitimate role when used in line with international use of force standards,18 this equipment is also widely misused for torture and other ill-treatment. Indeed, this equipment’s very ubiquity can make it a favoured tool of torture, used singly or in combination, with, for example, detainees often first restrained and then subject to abusive use of force through beatings or repeated exposure to chemical irritants. 1.2.1 KINETIC IMPACT WEAPONS: BATONS AND TRUNCHEONS The simple police baton, carried by police forces across the world, has been routinely used for torture and other ill-treatment in places of detention. BEATINGS WITH BATONS Various human rights bodies, including the UN's Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry on Burundi, have recorded the misuse of hand-held kinetic impact weapons in that country.19 Amnesty International documented various cases in 2015, including of a prisoner who reported police “made us lie on the ground, with our arms stretched out in front of us and with our hands handcuffed. Policemen dressed in full blue uniforms beat the boy and myself with their batons. They beat us on our back, buttocks and feet for 20 minutes. They were six policemen and they took turns. I had problems walking for a week. I couldn’t put my shoes on, because my feet were so swollen. Even putting my feet on the ground was difficult.”20 16 “China Uighurs: A model's video gives a rare glimpse inside internment”, BBC News, 4 August 2020, www.bbc.com/news/world-asiachina-53650246; “Inside a Uyghur’s ‘quarantine’ room: Video shows shackles, filthy conditions and propaganda”, Globe and Mail, 4 August 2020, www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-inside-a-uyghurs-quarantine-room-video-shows-shackles-filthy/; “China says detained Uyghur model was ‘aggressive’ after he described mistreatment in detention”, Globe and Mail, 17 August 2020, www. theglobeandmail.com/world/article-china-says-uyghur-model-who-described-detention-in-xinjiang-was/ 17 “China Uighurs: A model's video gives a rare glimpse inside internment,” BBC News, 4 August 2020, www.bbc.co.uk/news/worldasia-china-53650246 18 See in particular UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, adopted by the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Havana, Cuba, 27 August-7 September 1990, www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/useofforceandfirearms.aspx; UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials, adopted by UN General Assembly resolution 34/169 of 17 December 1979, www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/ lawenforcementofficials.aspx 19 UN, Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry on Burundi, A/HRC/39/CRP.1, 12 September 2018, para. 338. 20 Amnesty International, “Just tell me what to confess to”: Torture and other ill-treatment by Burundi’s police and intelligence service since April 2015 (Index: AFR 16/2298/2015) ENDING THE TORTURE TRADE THE PATH TO GLOBAL CONTROLS ON THE ‘TOOLS OF TORTURE’ Amnesty International | Omega Research Foundation 11