Amnesty Takes Aim at 'Gulag' in Guantanamo
By PAISLEY DODDS, Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, May 25, 2005


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(05-25) 07:44 PDT LONDON, United Kingdom (AP) --


Amnesty International branded the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay a
human rights failure Wednesday, calling it "the gulag of our time" as
it released a report that offers stinging criticism of the United
States and its detention centers around the world.


The 308-page report accused the United States of shirking its
responsibility to set the bar for human rights protections and said
Washington has instead created a new lexicon for abuse and torture.
Amnesty International called for the camp to be closed.


"Attempts to dilute the absolute ban on torture through new policies
and quasi-management speak, such as 'environmental manipulation, stress
positions and sensory manipulation,' was one of the most damaging
assaults on global values," the annual report said.


Some 540 prisoners from about 40 countries are being held at the U.S.
detention center in Cuba. More than 200 others have been released,
though some have been jailed in their countries; many have been held
for three years without charge.


"Guantanamo has become the gulag of our time," Amnesty Secretary
General Irene Khan said.


A spokesman for the Department of Defense declined to comment on the
report, saying he had not seen it. But Navy Lt. Cmdr. Joe Carpenter
said the U.S. government continues to be a leader in human rights,
treating detainees humanely and investigating all claims of abuse.


At least 10 cases of abuse or mistreatment have been documented and
investigated at Guantanamo. Several other cases are pending.


"During the year, released detainees alleged that they had been
tortured or ill-treated while in U.S. custody in Afghanistan and
Guantanamo. Evidence also emerged that others, including Federal Bureau
of Investigation agents and the International Committee of the Red
Cross, had found that such abuses had been committed against
detainees," the report said.


The Geneva-based ICRC is the only independent group to have access to
the Guantanamo detainees. Amnesty has been refused access to the prison
camp, although it was allowed to watch the pretrial hearings for the
military commissions. The commissions, which could try 15 prisoners
facing charges, were stalled by a U.S. court's decision that is under
appeal.


"There's a myth going around that there's some kind of rule of law
being applied," said Rob Freer, an Amnesty official who specializes in
detention issues.


Amnesty acknowledged the human rights deficiencies came with a rash of
terrorist actions, including the televised beheadings of captives in
Iraq.


Still, the group said, governments forgot many victims in the fight
against terrorism.


Khan singled out Sudan as one of the worst human rights violations of
last year, saying that not only had the Sudanese government turned its
back on its own people, but that the United Nations and the African
Union acted too late to help.


She also said the African Union needed to do more about speaking out
against human rights abuses in Africa, singling out Zimbabwe. She
talked about human rights failures being compounded by big business'
complicity.


Amnesty's report also pointed to Haiti, saying human rights violators
were allowed to regain positions of power after armed rebels and former
soldiers ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide last year.


Amnesty said Congo's government offered no effective response to the
systematic rape of tens of thousands of women and children and warned
of a downward spiral of lawlessness and instability in Afghanistan.


In Asia, the report said violence and discrimination against women was
rampant last year, ranging from acid attacks for unpaid dowries in
Bangladesh to forced abortion in China, rape by soldiers in Nepal and
domestic beatings in Australia.


Amnesty also said the ouster of the conservative Islamic Taliban regime
in 2001 by U.S.-led forces did little to bring relief to women.


In the western Herat region, Amnesty reported that hundreds of women
had set fire to themselves to escape violence in the home or forced
marriage.


"Fear of abductions by armed groups forced women to restrict their
movements outside the home," Amnesty said. Even within families,
"extreme restrictions" on women's behavior and high levels of violence
persisted, it said.


While criticizing the detention mission at Guantanamo, Amnesty said one
sign of hope was the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in June that let
prisoners challenge the basis of their detention. It also said it was
encouraging that Britain's high court lords ruled on the indefinite
detention without charge or trial of "terrorist suspects."


"The challenge for the human rights movement is to harness the power of
civil society and push governments to deliver on their human rights
promises," Khan said.