British Law Lord condemns Guantanamo

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Thursday November 27, 2003 14:15 by James McKenna jimmymac61 at hotmail dot com

During a speech in London Lord Justice Steyn described the treatment of prisoners at the US Naval base at Guantanamo bay , Cuba as, "a monsterous failure of justice."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3238624.stm

Lord Steyn said the Muslim prisoners were being held deliberately beyond the rule of law and the protecion of the courts. The Lord also quoted a US military source at the camp as describing the treatment of prisoners as, "it's not quite torture but it's as close as you can get."

Human rights lawyer Louise Christian said, "I cannot remember a senior law lord making a speech such as this which is obviously directed at government and I think it's an indication of the seriousness with which our senior judiciary view what's happening in Guantanamo bay."

During last weeks Bush visit to England, Tony the Poodle failed to reach any agreement on the treatment of the nine Britons being held without charge in the US torture and interrogation camp. Privately the father of one of the prisoners , Azmat Begg, has been assured "off the record" by a Home Office offical that no British prisoners will be executed. His son Moazzam Begg was kidnapped from his home in Pakistan and sold to US forces while working for a Muslim school charity.

Former Chief Proecutor on the UN war crimes tribunal, Justice Richard Goldstone said : " Judges don't believe people should be treated in this way, in a manner that is unlawful. I don't believe this prolonged detention and interrogations can be justified, anymore thatn torture can be justified. One hasn't seen any great intelligence results from Guantanamo bay. Certainly the democratic world regards it now as a great injustice and I have no doubt that history will judge it to be that. A future American president will have to apologise for these actions."

Christophe Girod of the International Comittee of the Red Cross also expressed his concern that, " the US has put these men beyond the law". Their argument , he says, is that Guantanamo Bay is not US territory while it remains an obvious and fully functioning part of the US . Like Embassies and military bases all over the world Guantanamo naval base and concentration camp are a definite part of the US "territory".

Men transported to Guantanamo are first held in Bhagram base in Afghanistan where Irish troops serve under the same NATO command. Two men have died there before the Red Cross could see them and their death certificates show "Homicide" and "blunt force trauma" as the cause of death. Torture is practiced by the CIA and US military in the Bhagram base with the support of the Irish Government.

Sayed Abassin , a taxi driver , was driving a passenger , Alif Shan, a businessman when they were seized by Northern Alliance thugs and sold to the US military who were offering substancial rewards for "Taliban". Sayed protested his innocence and showed his papers as a taxi driver and not a Talib but he was still taken by the Northern Alliance and handed over to tha US as a "captured Taliban."


Alif Shan says he and Sayed were handed over for ," influence, dollars and over personal disputes." While spending over 18 months in Guantanamo before their release earlier this year with 67 others, Shan lost properties and investments. Sayed has a young family and was forced to see his family destitute at the hands of the new US regime in Afghanistan.

Sayed had been beaten up by the Taliban for playing music in his taxi and is his home to this day is a concealed television and a copy of his favourite video "Titanic", with Leonardo De Caprio. "I would have been in a lot of trouble if the Taliban had found these he said to western journalists. He tells the story of his transportation to Cuba:

"They put handcuffs and tape on my hands. They taped my eyes and ears and gagged me. They put chains on my arms and legs and aournd my waist. They injected me. I was unconscious. When I arrived in Cuba and they took me off the plane they injected me again and I came back to consciousness. I did not know how long the plane was flying for. They put me on a bed on wheels, I could sense what was going on. They tied me up. They took me off the plane onto a vehicle. We got to a big prison and there were cages there. They built it like a zoo."

"Each container houses 48 cages. Everyone was in an individual cage with a tap a toilet and water. There was room to sit but not to pray. We were praying with difficulty, My joints were damaged."

Sayeds knees are still very damaged and scarred from his time in Bhagram when he was forced to kneel for hours with his hands above his head.

"The light was very bright there as well. It was switched on all the time and because of that our eyes were damaged and from constantly having to look through the netting. If we talked to each other they took away our blankets and bedding for three days, leaving only a towel to cover ourselves and sleep under. I had problems with my knees and the military doctor told me to do exercises but when I did the soldiers took me to a closed container for five days. I was told to do it by the doctor."

The Christian chaplain at Guantanamo Lt. Col Herb Heavner said when asked how he felt about such treatment, "If I occupy a lot of my time concerning myself with the fairness or the justness of what is taking place, I wouldn't be able to focus on my primary mission."

Judge Michelle Picard ,President of the Human Rights Chamber in Boznia-Herzagovina said, "It is clear that the world is not safe anymore because of the behaviour of the United States."

The US has kidnapped 6 men from Boznia after they were aquitted of attempting to blow up the British and US embassies. The Human Rights Chamber had expressly stated the men were not to be taken from the country but the US went right ahead and kidnapped them.

Children as young as 13 await military tribunals headed by a commander-in-chief who has already declared of the detainees, " the only thing we know for certain is that these are bad people." Should they then feel they will have an independent, impartial hearing?

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