The Guantánamo Scandal Continues
AI Index: AMR 51/078/2003
Publish date: 29 May 2003
By dismissing Amnesty International's concerns about the hundreds of detainees
held in the US Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay as "without merit", the
White House is at the same time rejecting much wider international disquiet,
Amnesty International said today.
"Since the transfers to Guantánamo began 17 months ago, numerous
international, regional and national bodies, including governments and courts,
have expressed deep concern about the situation of the detainees,"
Amnesty International said.
"Is that opinion all without merit?"
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention, the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and
lawyers, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and the European
Parliament, are among those who have voiced concern and called for remedies.
The High Court in the United Kingdom has referred to the Guantánamo situation
as "objectionable" and in "apparent contravention of
fundamental principles recognized by international law". This month a US
federal judge described the plight of the detainees as "deeply
troubling" and "not consistent with some of the most basic values
our legal system has long embodied".
"In March, Secretary of State Colin Powell said that states which show a
high degree of respect for human rights are the most likely to contribute to
international security," Amnesty International said.
"The administration should apply that sentiment to end the legal limbo of
the Guantánamo detainees".
In a letter sent last month to Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld, Secretary of
State Powell reportedly cited complaints from eight allied countries whose
nationals are among the more than 650 Camp Delta detainees currently held
without access to lawyers, relatives or the courts. Secretary Powell
reportedly said that the situation of the detainees threatened to undermine
international cooperation in the US-led "war on terror".
"We have repeatedly said that the US is violating international law and
standards on this issue, including the principle that detainees should be able
to challenge the lawfulness of their detention," Amnesty International
said.
"We repeat our call for full and immediate remedies in the interest of
justice and the rule of law".
Responding to Amnesty International's concern on Guantánamo in its annual
report, White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer said yesterday: "I just
dismiss that as without merit".
Continuing the pattern of official contempt for the presumption of innocence,
Mr Fleisher referred to the uncharged, untried, unrepresented Guantánamo
detainees as "terrorists" and "very dangerous people".
Senior members of the executive, including President Bush and Secretary
Rumsfeld, have made such public comments since the arrival of the first
detainees in the Naval Base. Last month, following the revelation that
children as young as 13 were among the detainees, a senior Pentagon spokesman
said that "despite their age, these are very, very dangerous people"
on a "terrorist team".
Also yesterday, the military revealed that there had been two more suicide
attempts among the detainees over the past 10 days, bringing to around 27 the
number of such instances.
This followed reports at the weekend of possible US plans for an execution
chamber at the Guantánamo facility. While shocking, this would fit with the
administration's proposal to try selected foreign nationals in front of
executive military commissions with the power to hand down death sentences.
Convicted prisoners would have no right of appeal to any court. No one has yet
been named by President Bush to appear before the military commissions, but
preparations for such trials continue and officials are being recruited.
"Indefinite detention without charge or trial, confinement to tiny cells
for up to 24 hours a day, shackling during the bare minimum of exercise time
granted, the cruelty of keeping relatives wondering about the plight of their
loved ones, repeated interrogations without access to legal counsel, and the
prospect of executions after unfair trials without the right of appeal,"
Amnesty International continued.
"Is it any wonder that the international community is asking serious
questions about the USA's commitment to human rights?"
Amnesty International is awaiting a reply to its repeated requests for access
to Guantánamo Bay. In a letter received from the Pentagon last month, the
organization was denied access to the US Air Base in Bagram, Afghanistan.
Disturbing allegations of ill-treatment of detainees have emerged from the
interrogation section of the Bagram facility. Last week Amnesty International
renewed its call for an impartial inquiry into the treatment of detainees in
Bagram and for the results of the investigation into the deaths of two Afghan
men in the base in December 2002 to be made public.
Source: Amnesty International, International Secretariat, 1
Easton Street, WC1X 8DJ, London, United Kingdom
