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U.N.: Guantanamo detainees should be freed or tried
Report authors didn't accept invitation to visit facility
Thursday, February 16, 2006; Posted: 1:15 p.m. EST (18:15 GMT)
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The U.S. government should release all suspected terrorists it's holding at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or try them, the United Nations said Thursday.
Although the authors of the U.N. report declined to visit the military facility to gather information, they did base some of their conclusions on interviews with former detainees and attorneys. The United States has designated detainees as enemy combatants.
The 54-page report also recommends closing the jail "without further delay." (Watch clips of dramatic new film about Gitmo detainees -- 2:23)
As of last October, about 520 people were being detained at Guantanamo, said the report from U.N. Commission on Human Rights, based in Geneva, Switzerland.
It singled out "all special interrogation techniques authorized by the Department of Defense," urging they be revoked immediately.
And it called for the U.S. government not to send detainees to countries where there are "substantial grounds for believing" they might be tortured, a process called extraordinary rendition.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan dismissed the report.
"The U.N. team that was looking into this issue did not even visit Guantanamo Bay," McClellan said.
"I think that what we are seeing is a rehash of allegations that have been made by lawyers representing some of these detainees. We know that these are dangerous terrorists that are being kept at Guantanamo Bay. They are people that are determined to harm innocent civilians or harm innocent Americans. They were enemy combatants picked up on the battlefield in the war on terrorism."
The report said every detainee must be given the right to complain about his treatment and have any complaints dealt with "promptly and, if requested, confidentially."
And any allegations of "torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" must be investigated by an independent authority and those involved -- "up to the highest level of military and political command" -- must be brought to justice, the report said.
Those victims of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment should be compensated by the U.S. government, it continued.
Further, people who work in the camp's detention facilities should be trained to respect human-rights standards for the treatment of prisoners, including their right to freedom of religion, the report said.
Also, authorities must not be allowed to force-feed "any detainee who is capable of forming a rational judgment and is aware of the consequences of refusing food," the report said.
Detainee access denied
In response, Ambassador Kevin Edward Moley, permanent representative of the United States to the United Nations in Geneva, said it was "particularly unfortunate" that the report's authors had rejected an invitation to visit the facility "and that their unedited report does not reflect the direct, personal knowledge that this visit would have provided."
But the report's authors said they declined the invitation because it stipulated they would not have been allowed to interview the detainees privately.
State Department legal adviser John Bellinger said the International Committee for the Red Cross is at the Guantanamo facility and "they are the ones who are the appropriate ones to talk to the detainees."
The ICRC, however, is barred from speaking publicly about conditions they find in detention facilities.
The report was based on interviews with former detainees, lawyers, public documents, media reports and a questionnaire filled out by the U.S. government, prompting Bellinger to argue that the United Nations had received only one side of the story.
But Manfred Nowak, one of the report's authors, said that accepting restrictions such as the ones imposed by the United States was not something that would be done for any other country.
"I can't go to a country and only speak to the prison officials and be denied the opportunity to speak to the detainees," Nowak said. "We are serious, objective, independent fact-finders. We would undermine the U.N.'s fact-finding capacities if we were to accept an invitation that we are not accepting from any other state in the world."
Interrogation techniques
The report said interrogation techniques at the facility authorized by the Department of Defense, "particularly if used simultaneously, amount to degrading treatment in violation of ... the Convention against Torture."
For example, indefinite periods of detention and prolonged solitary confinement amount to torture, the report said.
And it noted a "profound deterioration" in the mental health of many being held on the island. In 2003, more than 350 acts of self-harm were reported, along with individual and mass suicide attempts and hunger strikes, it said.
Health professionals criticized
It singled out health professionals for criticism, noting that some appear to have been "complicit in abusive treatment of detainees detrimental to their health."
It added that some interrogation techniques "are aimed at offending the religious feelings of detainees," a conclusion it deemed "of particular concern."
"The war on terror, as such, does not constitute an armed conflict for the purposes of the applicability of international humanitarian law," it said.
Anyone held on Guantanamo should be able to challenge the legality of their detention before a judicial body and to be released if the legal basis for their continued detention is found lacking, the report said.
"This right is currently being violated," it added.
"The executive branch of the United States government operates as judge, prosecutor and defense counsel of the Guantanamo Bay detainees."
Report authors didn't accept invitation to visit facility
Thursday, February 16, 2006; Posted: 1:15 p.m. EST (18:15 GMT)
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- The U.S. government should release all suspected terrorists it's holding at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or try them, the United Nations said Thursday.
Although the authors of the U.N. report declined to visit the military facility to gather information, they did base some of their conclusions on interviews with former detainees and attorneys. The United States has designated detainees as enemy combatants.
The 54-page report also recommends closing the jail "without further delay." (Watch clips of dramatic new film about Gitmo detainees -- 2:23)
As of last October, about 520 people were being detained at Guantanamo, said the report from U.N. Commission on Human Rights, based in Geneva, Switzerland.
It singled out "all special interrogation techniques authorized by the Department of Defense," urging they be revoked immediately.
And it called for the U.S. government not to send detainees to countries where there are "substantial grounds for believing" they might be tortured, a process called extraordinary rendition.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan dismissed the report.
"The U.N. team that was looking into this issue did not even visit Guantanamo Bay," McClellan said.
"I think that what we are seeing is a rehash of allegations that have been made by lawyers representing some of these detainees. We know that these are dangerous terrorists that are being kept at Guantanamo Bay. They are people that are determined to harm innocent civilians or harm innocent Americans. They were enemy combatants picked up on the battlefield in the war on terrorism."
The report said every detainee must be given the right to complain about his treatment and have any complaints dealt with "promptly and, if requested, confidentially."
And any allegations of "torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" must be investigated by an independent authority and those involved -- "up to the highest level of military and political command" -- must be brought to justice, the report said.
Those victims of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment should be compensated by the U.S. government, it continued.
Further, people who work in the camp's detention facilities should be trained to respect human-rights standards for the treatment of prisoners, including their right to freedom of religion, the report said.
Also, authorities must not be allowed to force-feed "any detainee who is capable of forming a rational judgment and is aware of the consequences of refusing food," the report said.
Detainee access denied
In response, Ambassador Kevin Edward Moley, permanent representative of the United States to the United Nations in Geneva, said it was "particularly unfortunate" that the report's authors had rejected an invitation to visit the facility "and that their unedited report does not reflect the direct, personal knowledge that this visit would have provided."
But the report's authors said they declined the invitation because it stipulated they would not have been allowed to interview the detainees privately.
State Department legal adviser John Bellinger said the International Committee for the Red Cross is at the Guantanamo facility and "they are the ones who are the appropriate ones to talk to the detainees."
The ICRC, however, is barred from speaking publicly about conditions they find in detention facilities.
The report was based on interviews with former detainees, lawyers, public documents, media reports and a questionnaire filled out by the U.S. government, prompting Bellinger to argue that the United Nations had received only one side of the story.
But Manfred Nowak, one of the report's authors, said that accepting restrictions such as the ones imposed by the United States was not something that would be done for any other country.
"I can't go to a country and only speak to the prison officials and be denied the opportunity to speak to the detainees," Nowak said. "We are serious, objective, independent fact-finders. We would undermine the U.N.'s fact-finding capacities if we were to accept an invitation that we are not accepting from any other state in the world."
Interrogation techniques
The report said interrogation techniques at the facility authorized by the Department of Defense, "particularly if used simultaneously, amount to degrading treatment in violation of ... the Convention against Torture."
For example, indefinite periods of detention and prolonged solitary confinement amount to torture, the report said.
And it noted a "profound deterioration" in the mental health of many being held on the island. In 2003, more than 350 acts of self-harm were reported, along with individual and mass suicide attempts and hunger strikes, it said.
Health professionals criticized
It singled out health professionals for criticism, noting that some appear to have been "complicit in abusive treatment of detainees detrimental to their health."
It added that some interrogation techniques "are aimed at offending the religious feelings of detainees," a conclusion it deemed "of particular concern."
"The war on terror, as such, does not constitute an armed conflict for the purposes of the applicability of international humanitarian law," it said.
Anyone held on Guantanamo should be able to challenge the legality of their detention before a judicial body and to be released if the legal basis for their continued detention is found lacking, the report said.
"This right is currently being violated," it added.
"The executive branch of the United States government operates as judge, prosecutor and defense counsel of the Guantanamo Bay detainees."
That is disturbing.
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