US: The US detention centre at Guantánamo Bay is condemning thousands of people around the world to a life of suffering and stigmatisation, says a report published today by Amnesty International on the centre's impact on detainees and their families.
The report says that dozens of the 500 inmates remain on hunger strike despite being fed forcibly through nasal tubes and that suicide attempts are numerous. Some detainees' families have received little or no communication from Guantánamo and do not know where their imprisoned relatives are or even if they are alive.
The report quotes from a statement to his lawyer by Saudi detainee Shaker Aamer, explaining why he joined the hunger strike. "I am dying here every day, mentally and physically. This is happening to all of us. We have been ignored, locked up in the middle of the ocean for four years. Rather than humiliate myself . . . I would rather hurry up a process that is going to happen anyway . . . I would just like to die quietly by myself . . . I want to make it easy on everyone."
Colm Ó Cuanacháin, secretary general of Amnesty International's Irish section, said the hunger strikers are asking for no more than that their rights under international law be respected.
"If these people are terrorists or have committed serious crimes, they should face the full rigour of the law. But let's be clear, Guantánamo has been in existence for over four years. None have been charged with any crimes, none have been tried, none have been convicted of any crime. If there is no evidence to charge or convict of any crime, then they must be released."
Amnesty says that nine men remain at Guantánamo even though the US authorities no longer consider them "enemy combatants". Five are ethnic Uighurs from China who could face persecution by the Chinese authorities but Amnesty says it is Washington's responsibility to release them while ensuring that their right to asylum is respected.
The report says that even after detainees have been released, they and their families often continue to face harassment and are stigmatised as terrorists. Fatima Tekaeva, mother of a former Russian detainee, Rasul Kudayev, said the experience had utterly changed her son. "He returned from Guantánamo with his health absolutely ruined . . . he left his health in Cuba . . . he was given the stigma of being an international terrorist . . . he is still being watched . . . it happens to all of them."
The Bush administration has consistently claimed that the detainees are among the most dangerous terrorists in the world.
"If you think of the people down there, these are people, all of whom are captured on a battlefield. They're terrorists, trainers, bombmakers, recruiters, financiers, bodyguards, would-be suicide bombers, probably the 20th 9/11 hijacker," defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last year.
An analysis by the Washington-based National Journal of legal documents concerning 132 inmates has found, however, that more than half are not accused of taking part in hostilities against the US or its allies and most were not picked up in Afghanistan but in Pakistan. Transcripts for 314 prisoners who pleaded their cases before combatant status review tribunals at Guantánamo showed a similar breakdown.
In many cases evidence linking detainees to al-Qaeda is based almost entirely on the testimony of fellow inmates, many of whom had been subjected to hundreds of hours of harsh interrogation. One prisoner has made accusations against more than 60 fellow inmates - more than 10 per cent of the camp's detainee population.
Shortly before Christmas Congress passed a measure eliminating habeas corpus rights for all Guantánamo detainees. Just before President George Bush signed the bill last month, however, human rights lawyers filed habeas corpus petitions on behalf of all detainees who had not already done so. The lawyers will argue that the new legislation cannot stop courts from hearing petitions that were pending before it was enacted.
Amnesty calls on the US government to publish a list of detainees in Guantánamo and elsewhere; to try or release Guantánamo detainees; to close it; to open all US detention facilities to independent scrutiny; and to investigate all allegations of torture and ill-treatment of detainees.