Human Rights and Guantanamo

Whether the United States is an advocator of human rights or not is questionable. On one hand, the USA has been praised for sheltering many political and economic refugees in times of international strife. On the other hand, it has been criticized by both friendly and hostile countries for supporting serious human rights abuses, including torture, legal rendition, assassination, imprisonment without trial and for supporting dictatorships.

The United States tends not to obey human rights when it comes to national security. That is to say, it has suspended various guaranteed rights on national security grounds, usually in wartime and conflicts like Civil War, Cold War and the War against Terror.

One of the most controversial issues that portrays a clear example of both US strategy towards national security and US suspension of human rights lies in Guantanamo Bay situated in Cuba. This detention camp which has come into existence in 2002 holds people who are charged by the United States government with being terrorist operatives, as well as those who are no longer considered suspects but are being held pending relocation elsewhere.

Since the beginning of the War in Afghanistan, 775 detainees have been brought to this detention camp from which 420 have been freed. By August 2007, about 355 detainees remained. More than a fifth of them are cleared for release but might have to wait for months or years as the US official have difficulty finding suitable places to send them to. According to US officials, of the 355 detainees who are remained, 60 to 80 would be put on trial and the rest would be released.

What is interesting is that the US government has classified the detainees held in Guantanamo as “enemy combatants”, rather than prisoners of war (POWs). The Bush Administration claims that according to the 4^th Article of the Geneva Convention, these captives are not POWs and therefore do not have rights of POWs.

Now about the conditions of the prisoners: They are held in small cells and lights are kept on day and night. They have rations like other prisoners in the US, with consideration for Muslim dietary needs. However, detainees have been rejected access to the Quran for daily prayer. They are kept in isolation most of the day, are blindfolded when they are moving within the camp and they are also forbidden to talk in groups of more than three. According to the United States doctrine isolation and silence are effective means of breaking down the will of prisoners to resist interrogation. Red Cross inspectors and released detainees have talked about the use of torture in Guantanamo including sleep deprivation, the use of so-called truth drugs, beatings and locking in confined and cold cells. Human rights groups say that indefinite detention constitutes torture.

One of the allegations of abuse at the camp is the abuse of the religion of those kept in Guantanamo. The US government has claimed that they respect all religions. However, prisoners released from the camp have reported abuse of religion included flushing the Qur’an down the toilet, defacing the Qur’an, writing comments and remarks on the Qur’an, tearing pages out of the Qur’an and denying detainees a copy of the Qur’an.

The use of torture in Guantanamo Bay has made human rights organizations and critics protest all around the world. Only 9days ago, on 11 January 2008, thousands of people, including Amnesty International members and supporters from all over the world, have taken action to mark the sixth anniversary of the first transfers of detainees to Guantánamo. There have been protests in 30 countries on that day. Street theatres, poetry readings and the recreation of Guantanamo cells were among tens of activities which were performed in different countries. People gathering on that day called for both closure of Guantanamo and ending all illegal detentions, whether at Guantanamo or elsewhere.

And finally, exactly 2 days after the Guantanamo anniversary, US Navy Admiral Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was the latest US official to say to the world the Guantanamo should be shut down. What he said was really thought-provoking: “More that anything else, I just think it has been the image – how Gitmo (i.e. Guantanamo) has become around the world, in terms of representing the United States. I believe from the standpoint of how it reflects on us that it’s been pretty damaging.”

P.S. Road to Guantanamo is the terrifying first-hand account of three British citizens who were held for two years without charges in the American detention camp at Guantanamo Bay.

This video clip is worth taking a look at: