RIGHTS: Anti-Terrorism War Undermines Basic Freedoms, Says Amnesty

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Mar 14 2002 (IPS) - The human rights watchdog Amnesty International is calling the global community’s attention to the violation of basic rights of hundreds of people who have been detained in the United States in relation to the Sep 11 attacks, and urging the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to take action to prevent further mistreatment.

Detainees are being deprived of “the right to humane treatment, to be informed of the reasons for the detention, to have prompt access to a lawyer, to be able to challenge the lawfulness of the detention and to be presumed innocent until proven otherwise,” says an Amnesty report released here Thursday.

A statement from the London-based human rights organisation mentions cruel treatment, including prolonged solitary confinement, heavy shackling during transfer of prisoners and the lack of adequate exercise.

More than 1,200 foreigners, mostly citizens of Muslim or Middle Eastern countries, were arrested in the United States following the Sep 11 attacks, entangled in the government’s search for suspects. Several hundred are believed to remain in custody.

Amnesty’s declaration about these detainees in the United States is among the documents the group has distributed in the run- up to the annual sessions of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, to take place in Geneva Mar 18-Apr 26.

Like the International Committee of the Red Cross, Amnesty International objected in February to Washington’s refusal to grant prisoner-of-war status to the militants of the Islamic fundamentalist organisation al-Qaeda who were captured in Afghanistan, believed to be responsible for the September attacks, and are now being held at the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo, Cuba.

Amnesty maintained that, according to various reports, the prisoners appeared to be subjected to “sensory deprivation” through the use of blacked-out goggles, facemasks, and gloves, and were interrogated without the presence of legal representation.

Human rights are being undermined in the post-Sep 11 “security overdrive”, says Melinda Ching, Amnesty’s representative to the UN in Geneva.

The UN Commission on Human Rights “has to rise to the challenge of protecting the rights of all, independently of political interests,” said the activist, stressing Amnesty’s recommendation that this priority must be present in all of the Commission’s deliberations.

Amnesty’s concern stems from the fact that some governments that have responded to the attacks occurred in New York and Washington by enacting anti-terrorist measures that, according to the organisation, jeopardise the human rights “of their own citizens, as well as those of foreigners and those seeking asylum in their countries.”

In the documents submitted by Amnesty, and in the statements of its spokespersons, the references to the Sep 11 attacks rarely involve the term “terrorists”. In relation to the incidents, the organisation urges “justice, not revenge.”

The concept of “terrorism”, says Amnesty, is appearing frequently in new legislation, and “is often broad and vaguely defined, thereby leaving scope for abuse by criminalizing peaceful activities.”

The terrorism issue will be one of the predominant themes in the traditionally politicised debate of the Commission in Geneva, the UN’s maximum body dedicated to human rights.

The African countries on the Commission, with support from the Asian bloc, proposed that the day of sessions known as the “special segment”, traditionally set aside for in-depth debate on a critical issue, should focus on terrorism this year.

But that idea has run into opposition from the Latin American, Caribbean, and Western and Eastern European blocs.

The discussions among the representatives from the 53 countries on the Commission are expected to take up the escalation of the Middle East crisis, and the fact that for the first time in the history of the body, the United States will not be present.

The nations of the Western European bloc, in which the United States is grouped, voted for other candidate countries last year, denying Washington a seat on the Commission.

With regard to the Middle East, Amnesty is exhorting the Commission “to strongly condemn the grave violations of human rights in Israel and the Occupied Territories.”

Amnesty calls on the Commission “to support its call for the urgent deployment of international observers to the region,” Catherine Turner, the group’s deputy representative to the UN in Geneva, told a press conference Thursday.

The organisation is also pressing the Commission to give priority to the situation of Zimbabwe, where presidential elections were held this week, contested by the internal opposition and most industrialised countries, which charge that the process was neither fair nor transparent.

Colombia, Indonesia, Israel and the Occupied Territories, Russian Federation and Chechnya, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe are six countries for which the UN body “must address the pattern of grave and systematic violations of human rights,” says Amnesty.

The organisation also urges action on the key areas of “anti- terrorism” measures, the death penalty, forced disappearances, racism and torture.