Guantánamo
Bay
A
human rights scandal
Amnesty
International
Despite
a major international outcry and expert condemnation of US government
policy, hundreds of people of around 40 different nationalities remain
held without charge or trial at the US Naval Base in Guantá
namo Bay in Cuba, without access to any court, legal counsel or family
visits. Denied their rights under international law and held in conditions
which may amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, the detainees
face severe psychological distress. There have been numerous suicide
attempts.
Many
of those held were captured during the international conflict in Afghanistan,
from where transfers to the Naval Base began in January 2002 under harsh
conditions of transportation. Others were arrested elsewhere and handed
over to the US authorities. Sporadic transfers to, and releases from,
the base continue, but the precise numbers, identities and nationalities
of those held has never been made public.
Presumption
of guilt
None of the detainees have been granted prisoner of war status or brought
before a "competent tribunal" to determine his status, as
required by Article 5 of the Third Geneva Convention. The US government
refuses to clarify their legal status, despite calls from the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to do so. Instead, the US government
labels them "enemy combatants" or "terrorists",
flouting their right to be presumed innocent and illegally presuming
justification for the denial of many of their most basic human rights.
US
Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, has repeatedly referred to those
held at Guantánamo as "hard core, well-trained terrorists",
and "among the most dangerous, best-trained vicious killers on
the face of the earth" and has linked them directly to the attacks
of 11 September 2001.Vice President Dick Cheney has also labelled the
detainees as "the worst of a very bad lot. They are very dangerous.
They are devoted to killing millions of Americans." Despite these
blanket allegations, several detainees have been released from the base
without charge. No compensation has been offered for the many months
they were illegally detained at Guantánamo.
Inhuman
and illegal detention
In April 2002 the detainees were transferred from the small wire-mesh
cages at the temporary Camp X-Ray to the confines of Camp Delta where
the majority are held in maximum security blocks in cells even smaller
than before, sometimes for up to 24 hours a day and with very little
out-of-cell exercise time. The detainees are also subjected to repeated
interrogations sometimes for hours at a time and without the presence
of a lawyer, raising fears that statements may be extracted under coercion.
The ICRC is the only non-governmental organisation allowed access to
the detainees.
With
no opportunity to challenge the lawfulness of their detention and the
prospect of indefinite detention without trial in such conditions, the
potential psychological impact upon those held is a major concern. The
ICRC delegation has stated that it has observed a "worrying deterioration"
in the mental health of a large number of the detainees, and that their
psychological condition has become a "major problem". Efforts
to obtain justice in the US courts have so far been unsuccessful, with
the courts holding that they do not have jurisdiction over the detainees,
because they are foreign nationals held outside US sovereign territory
Military
commissions: A stain on US justice
In November 2001, President Bush signed a Military Order establishing
trials by military commission which have the power to hand down death
sentences and against whose decisions there will be no right of appeal
to any court.
Six
foreign nationals held at Guantánamo have since been named as
the first to be tried under the Military Order, amid mounting international
concern that any trial before the military commissions would be intrinsically
unfair. In addition to the lack of right to appeal, the commissions
will lack independence and will restrict the right of defendants to
choose their own counsel and to an effective defence. The commissions
will also accept a lower standard of evidence than in ordinary courts.
This could include evidence extracted under torture or coercion. Lord
Steyn, a judge from the UK's highest court had said that such trials
would be "a stain on United States justice".
Amnesty
International is a London based human rights body.
