"Pentagon Invites UN Torture Investigtor to Guantanamo," by Will Dunham - Reuters (Washington), 29 Oct 2005
The United States on Friday invited three UN human rights investigators, including the one who examines torture allegations, to visit the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in a bid to show "we have nothing to hide."
Human rights activists have criticized the United States for the indefinite detention of the roughly 505 detainees being held at the prison for foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The Pentagon said the three would be permitted to observe operations at Guantanamo "and ask questions of the command, staff and U.S. officials who would accompany them."
But Lt. Col. Mark Ballesteros, a Pentagon spokesman on detainee issues, said they would not be allowed to speak to detainees because that was the role of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The Pentagon said the invitations were extended to Austria's Manfred Nowak, special investigator for the United Nations on torture, Pakistan's Asma Jahangir, who focuses on religious freedom, and Algeria's Leila Zerrougui, who looks into arbitrary detention.
"This goes to our desire to show that we have nothing to hide," Ballesteros said.
The three rights experts announced they would respond to the invitation at a news conference on Monday at UN headquarters in New York.
It's good that the Pentagon has taken this step; it would have been better if it had taken it -- oh, a year ago, or more. It's kind of late in the day to try to change people's ideas of what's gone on at Guantanamo.
Also see:
"UN Inspectors Are Invited to Guantanamo Bay," by Josh White - the Washington Post, 29 Oct 2005, p. A16 (registration required)
The U.S. government has invited three U.N. human rights experts to visit the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, amid growing concerns of rights violations and claims that the health of some hunger-striking detainees is deteriorating.
It is unclear whether the three U.N. special rapporteurs will accept the invitation -- which was extended yesterday after nearly four years of U.N. requests to inspect the facility -- because the Defense Department plans to impose fairly strict guidelines on any visit. Guantanamo Bay holds more than 500 detainees, and current guidelines would not allow the U.N. experts direct access to prisoners.
"The department has determined on an exceptional basis to extend this invitation," according to a Pentagon news release yesterday. "The department strives for transparency in our operation to the extent possible in light of security and operational requirements and the need to ensure the safety of our forces."
The Defense Department so far has allowed only the International Committee of the Red Cross to fully examine the facility, but the results of its regular visits are kept confidential under the ICRC policy of not reporting abuses or its concerns publicly. Foreign delegations have visited some detainees who are nationals of their countries, according to defense officials, and some detainees have lawyers who have visited on a limited basis.
Calls to two U.N. officials yesterday were not returned.
Defense officials said yesterday that the U.N. visit would allow the experts to "observe operations" at the facility and to "ask questions of the command, staff and U.S. officials who would accompany them."
Such a visit could be similar to the tour that members of Congress and the media have taken in recent months. It includes very limited viewing of the lowest-security prisoners from a distance, examining empty cells and vacant cellblocks, and perhaps observing an interrogation. Visitors are not provided direct contact with detainees.
The invitation could afford the Defense Department an opportunity to tell the world, through independent international observers, that it has cleaned up its act at Guantanamo Bay, where serious abuses were alleged to have occurred and where detainees regularly report mistreatment to their attorneys. But such U.N. experts usually demand private access to detainees to determine whether mistreatment is taking place....
"UN Invited to Inspect Guantanamo" - BBC News (World Edition), 29 Oct 2005
The Pentagon has invited UN officials to visit the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, more than three years after first receiving the request.
Three human right monitors will be allowed to observe the facilities and question military officials but will not have access to detainees.
The Pentagon said the invitation showed it had "nothing to hide...."
The UN first asked for permission to visit the camp when it opened in January 2002, months after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan which toppled the Taleban regime.
About 505 prisoners remain at Guantanamo, many of them captured in Afghanistan....
The UN has accused the US of stalling over its repeated requests to visit the camp to look into allegations of human rights abuses.
Human rights campaigners have expressed growing concern about the treatment of the inmates, some of whom are on hunger strike in protest about conditions.
The Pentagon says 26 detainees have been on a hunger strike that began in August but UK human rights charity Reprieve said 200 have taken part in the protest in cycles.
The US has provoked controversy with its policy to force-feed the hunger strikers. Campaigners said the policy was unethical and painful but the Pentagon said it was saving lives.
The Pentagon has invited UN officials to visit the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, more than three years after first receiving the request.
Three human right monitors will be allowed to observe the facilities and question military officials but will not have access to detainees.
The Pentagon said the invitation showed it had "nothing to hide...."
The UN first asked for permission to visit the camp when it opened in January 2002, months after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan which toppled the Taleban regime.
About 505 prisoners remain at Guantanamo, many of them captured in Afghanistan....
The UN has accused the US of stalling over its repeated requests to visit the camp to look into allegations of human rights abuses.
Human rights campaigners have expressed growing concern about the treatment of the inmates, some of whom are on hunger strike in protest about conditions.
The Pentagon says 26 detainees have been on a hunger strike that began in August but UK human rights charity Reprieve said 200 have taken part in the protest in cycles.
The US has provoked controversy with its policy to force-feed the hunger strikers. Campaigners said the policy was unethical and painful but the Pentagon said it was saving lives.
For background, see this June 2005 post on allegations by UN rapporteur Nowak (one of the people DOD is inviting to Guantanamo) that the US might be running 'secret prison ships.' Also see this post, from a week earlier, on Nowak's complaints that US officials had ignored his requests to visit Guantanamo.
Added 31 Oct 2005 - News about detainee David Hicks, an Australian, continues to dominate Australian coverage of Guantanamo:
"'New Evidence' Backs Hicks Torture Claim" - Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), 31 Oct 2005
Lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks say they have uncovered evidence supporting claims that the South Australian may have been the subject of organised torture by American troops.
In an interview with ABC TV's Four Corners program, Hicks's father Terry has detailed allegations of physical and sexual abuse of his son by American soldiers....
Added 1 November 2005:
"Experts Want Access to Guantanamo Inmates," by Andrew Selsky - AP (The UN), 31 Oct 2005
U.N. human rights investigators warned on Monday that they would snub a long-sought invitation to visit U.S. detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay if they are barred access to terrorist suspects being held there.
The Pentagon on Thursday invited three of the experts to visit the detention facilities at the U.S. military base in Cuba. But while the experts said they were happy the invitation finally came after more than three years of requests, they would not go if they cannot interview the prisoners.
"It makes no sense (to go)," Manfred Nowak, special investigator on torture and other cruel treatment, told a press conference at U.N. headquarters in New York. "You cannot do a fact-finding mission without talking to the detainees."
The U.S. Department of Defense declined to invite two experts with the United Nations Commission on Human Rights who also sought to go, drawing an angry reaction from one.
"I am informed that hunger strikers are being force-fed in a brutal manner bordering on the sadistic," said Paul Hunt, special investigator on the right to health. "The best way for me to check the accuracy of these and other allegations...is to visit, see the conditions for myself, to talk privately with detainees."
"I am extremely disappointed that the authorities continue to deny me access to Guantanamo Bay," Hunt said in a statement.
Nowak said pointedly that even China, which has a poor record of treatment of prisoners, has agreed to an inspection of Chinese prisons, including interviews with detainees.
The Austrian investigator, however, refused to compare the willingness of the United States and China to hold their treatment of prisoners up to scrutiny.
Nowak and Leila Zerrougi, chairperson of the world body's working group on arbitrary detention, said they and fellow investigator Asma Jahangir would visit Guantanamo on Dec. 6 -- but only if U.S. authorities permit them to interview detainees in private....
The investigators said they have also asked the United States and Iraq for access to Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, but have received no response....
For some context, see:
"Guantanamo Despertion Seen in Suicide Attempts," by Josh White - the Washington Post, 1 Nov 2005, p. A1 (registration required)
Jumah Dossari had to visit the restroom, so the detainee made a quick joke with his American lawyer before military police guards escorted him to a nearby cell with a toilet. The U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had taken quite a toll on Dossari over the past four years, but his attorney, who was there to discuss Dossari's federal court case, noted his good spirits and thought nothing of his bathroom break.
Minutes later, when Dossari did not return, Joshua Colangelo-Bryan knocked on the cell door, calling out his client's name. When he did not hear a response, Colangelo-Bryan stepped inside and saw a three-foot pool of blood on the floor. Numb, the lawyer looked up to see Dossari hanging unconscious from a noose tied to the ceiling, his eyes rolled back, his tongue and lips bulging, blood pouring from a gash in his right arm.
Dossari's suicide attempt two weeks ago is believed to be the first such event witnessed by an outsider at the prison, and one of several signs that lawyers and human rights advocates contend point to growing desperation among the more than 500 detainees there. Lawyers believe Dossari, who has been in solitary confinement for nearly two years, timed his suicide attempt so that someone other than his guards would witness it, a cry for help meant to reach beyond the base's walls.
Two dozen Guantanamo Bay detainees are currently being force-fed in response to a lengthy hunger strike, and the detainees' lawyers estimate there are dozens more who have not eaten since August. Military officials say there are 27 hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay, all of whom are clinically stable, closely monitored by medical personnel and receiving proper nutrition.
The hunger strikers are protesting their lengthy confinements in the island prison, where some have been kept for nearly four years and most have never been charged with a crime. The most recent hunger strike came after detention officials allegedly failed to honor promises made during a previous hunger strike....
Added 2 Nov 2005:
"Rumsfeld Says No UN Access to Guantanamo Inmates," by Will Dunham - Reuters (Washington), 1 Nov 2005
Spurning a request by U.N. human rights investigators, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday the United States will not allow them to meet with detainees at the Guantanamo prison for foreign terrorism suspects.
Rumsfeld also told a Pentagon news conference that prisoners at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were staging a hunger strike that began in early August as a successful ploy to attract media attention.
The three U.N. investigators, including one who focuses on torture, said on Monday they would turn down an invitation extended by the Pentagon on Friday to visit Guantanamo unless they were permitted to interview the detainees. The invitation came nearly four years after the visits were first requested.
Rumsfeld said the U.S. government will not change its policy of giving such access to detainees only to the International Committee of the Red Cross, a neutral body that keeps its findings confidential....
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