IS US OF PRESIDENT BUSH THE GULAG OF OUR TIMES?

By Irene Khan Reprint | | Print |

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LONDON, Jun 6 2005 (IPS) - A hooded prisoner balanced on a box with wires dangling from his outstretched arms. A naked man cowering in terror as soldiers threatened him with snarling dogs. A Quran being desecrated. \’\’Offensive.\’\’ \’\’Irresponsible.\’\’ \’\’Reprehensible.\’\’ \’\’Unfortunate and sad.\’\’ \’\’Absurd.\’\’ It would be natural to assume that these words were used to describe the horrific images detailed above — but they were not. In fact, they are the words used over recent weeks by senior US officials in response to Amnesty International\’s Report 2005, writes Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International. This defensive reaction was the latest in a long series of attempts by the US administration to deflect and divert attention from allegations of serious human rights abuses committed against detainees held in US custody in Guant namo, Bagram, and other undisclosed locations around the world. The outrage expressed by senior US officials including the President, the Vice President and the Secretary of Defense at AI\’s condemnation of US policies and practices is not merely hypocritical but also a diversionary tactic to deflect attention from some hard truths. The Bush administration must stop attacking the messenger and begin dealing with the message, which is simple: close Guant namo detention camp and charge the detainees under US law in US courts or release them. Disclose the rest and carry out a full, independent investigation into US policies and practices on detention and interrogation including torture and ill-treatment.

”Offensive.” ”Irresponsible.” ”Reprehensible.” ”Unfortunate and sad.” ”Absurd.”

It would be natural to assume that these words were used to describe the horrific images detailed above — but they were not. In fact, they are the words used over recent weeks by senior US officials in response to Amnesty International’s Report 2005. This defensive reaction was the latest in a long series of attempts by the US administration to deflect and divert attention from allegations of serious human rights abuses committed against detainees held in US custody in Guant namo, Bagram, and other undisclosed locations around the world.

The might of the US administration has been turned on Amnesty International’s use of one word: ”gulag”. Amnesty International has never claimed that the degree of abuse at Guant namo equalled that of the Soviet gulags. By speaking of Guant namo ”as the gulag of our times” our point was that to many people in the world the detention centre at Guant namo Bay has become a symbol of human rights abuse of our age — just as the gulag had been of human rights abuses during the Stalinist era.

Over the past three and a half years, Amnesty International has produced several detailed reports on US policies and practices on human rights in the context of the ”War on Terror”. The most recent, containing 164 pages of evidence and analysis, was published just weeks before the launch of the 2005 AI Report. Another published in October 2004, ran to over 200 pages.

The Bush administration failed to respond to either of these reports. The outrage expressed by senior US officials –including the President, the Vice President and the Secretary of Defense– to AI’s condemnation of US policies and practices is therefore not merely hypocritical but also a diversionary tactic to deflect attention from some hard truths.

Let’s get down to the substance. In President Bush’s statement of 31 May 2005, he accused AI of basing its information of the views of ”people who were held in detention, people who hate America”. If he had read our reports, he would have found that the mounting evidence of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment against detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guant namo, and secret locations elsewhere, comes not only from the detainees but from US official investigations and statements by US military personnel, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the International Committee of the Red Cross. This extensive body of evidence cannot be dismissed as the product of ”anti-Americanism”.

As the US administration knows full well, Guant namo is just the tip of an iceberg. Around the world, there are believed to be thousands of detainees held in secret, incommunicado, or indefinite detention without trial. Some have died in circumstances suggesting they were tortured to death while in US custody.

Others are said to be held by other governments with poor human rights records at the behest of the US, or with its knowledge. ”Extraordinary rendition” is the legal term used to gloss over the sub-contracting of torture. What it means in practice is that terrorist suspects are handed over for interrogation to countries known to practise torture. Not only is this wrong in itself, it also sends the message that the US condones torture and ill-treatment, and is prepared to turn a blind eye to repressive practices when convenient.

It is not correct to say that allegations of abuses by US personnel are fully investigated in a transparent way, as President Bush did. For while there have been reviews by some US government agencies of detention and interrogation policies and practices since the Abu Ghraib torture scandal came to light, none of the investigations to date has been fully independent, none has had the scope to review actions by all government actors, and most of the findings have been kept classified. Certain practices still remain shrouded in secrecy, including the alleged involvement of the CIA in secret detentions and transfers of detainees to countries with records of torture.

Not a single senior official of the US administration has been held to account, and not a single US agent has been charged under the Anti-Torture Act or War Crimes Act — despite numerous deaths of detainees in US custody in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Bush administration must stop attacking the messenger and begin dealing with the message, which is simple: Close Guant namo detention camp and charge the detainees under US law in US courts or release them. Disclose the rest and carry out a full, independent investigation into US policies and practices on detention and interrogation including torture and ill-treatment.

The United States can be a powerful force for ensuring respect for human rights worldwide. However, the US government will be drained of moral power to criticise others until it begins to uphold human rights and the rule of international law itself. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)