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UN inquiry demands immediate closure of Guantanamo
By Con Coughlin
Defence and Security Editor in New York
02/13/06 "The
Telegraph" -- -- A United Nations inquiry has
called for the immediate closure of America's Guantanamo Bay
detention centre and the prosecution of officers and politicians
"up to the highest level" who are accused of torturing
detainees.
The UN Human Rights Commission report, due to be published this
week, concludes that Washington should put the 520 detainees on
trial or release them.
It calls for the United States to halt all "practices amounting
to torture", including the
force-feeding of inmates who go on hunger strike..
The report wants the Bush administration to ensure that all
allegations of torture are investigated by US criminal courts,
and that "all perpetrators up to the highest level of military
and political command are brought to justice".
It does not specify who it means by "political command" but
logically this would include President George W Bush.
The demands are contained in the final report of the
commission's working group on arbitrary detention, which will be
presented at its Geneva headquarters in the next few days. A
copy of the report has been obtained exclusively by The Daily
Telegraph.
The report is bound to intensify the already strained relations
between the US and the UN over the Iraq war.
Washington officials yesterday denounced it as "a hatchet job"
when informed of the contents by this newspaper.
"This shows precisely what is wrong with the United Nations
today," said a senior official. "These people are supposed to be
undertaking a serious investigation of the facts relating to
Guantanamo.
"Instead, they deliver a report with a bunch of old allegations
from lawyers representing released detainees that are so
generalised that you cannot even tell what they are talking
about.
"When the UN produces an unprofessional hatchet job like this it
discredits the whole organisation."
The Bush administration has repeatedly called for the UN's
wholesale reform, and the report is likely to lead to demands
from Congress for a freeze on Washington's annual donations.
The authors question the right of America to classify the
detainees as "enemy combatants" and argue that the "war on
terror" is no justification for holding them indefinitely
without charge.
The report is also deeply critical of the US over recent
disclosures that some of the detainees have been subjected to
force-feeding when they have gone on hunger strike.
The authors argue that force-feeding is akin to torture, and
demands that "the authorities in Guantanamo Bay do not
force-feed any detainee who is capable of forming a rational
judgment and is aware of the consequences of refusing food."
But US officials refuted the suggestion that force-feeding is
torture, arguing that they had a duty under international law to
protect the lives of the detainees.
"We have a duty to prevent people killing themselves," said an
official, "and we are proud of the fact that none of the
detainees held at Guantanamo Bay has died since it opened."
The Guantanamo Bay detention centre was adapted to hold hundreds
of al-Qa'eda fighters captured during the 2001 war in
Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban.
More than 750 detainees have been processed by the facility
during the past four years.
After interrogation by US intelligence officers, some have been
released and others returned to their country of origin.
Because the al-Qa'eda fighters do not wear uniforms and have no
allegiance to any government they are not covered by the Geneva
Conventions.
And while there is insufficient evidence to charge most of the
520 detainees with war crimes, the US insists on the right to
detain them to prevent them returning to the battlefield to
carry out further attacks against the coalition.
There have already been at least 12 instances where released
Guantanamo detainees have resumed attacks against the coalition.
US officials are also prepared to return detainees to their home
countries, assuming those countries are prepared to receive them
and that they will not be subjected to torture on their return.
While American officials are prepared to concede that there are
conflicting interpretations over how the laws governing
international conflict should be applied, they are furious at
the way the investigation was conducted, especially the evidence
that the four "special rapporteurs" who compiled the report have
used to reach their conclusions.
Although Washington invited the group to visit Guantanamo at the
end of last year to inspect the facility, the rapporteurs
rejected the invitation after American officials made it clear
that they would not be allowed to meet the detainees.
"They [the rapporteurs] were offered the same access as
congressmen responsible for overseeing the facility, but they
declined to take up the offer," said a government official. "And
then they complain that they had no access to doctors or guards
- all of which they were offered."
The Bush administration also challenges whether it is the
responsibility of a body such as the UN Human Rights Commission
to investigate Guantanamo.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the
internationally recognised body responsible for monitoring
detention facilities, visits Guantanamo on a monthly basis.
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2006
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