-Caveat Lector- http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2005/s1399783.htm
Human rights experts demand access to Guantanamo AM - Friday, 24 June , 2005 08:16:00 Reporter: Alison Caldwell TONY EASTLEY: The Bush administration is coming under increasing pressure to open its base at Guantanamo Bay to United Nations Human Rights experts. The four independent experts claim to have reliable accounts of detainees being tortured at the US base. They say Washington hasn't responded to their repeated requests to visit the facility to check on the conditions, and they're threatening to file their report regardless of whether or not they get access to the base. Alison Caldwell reports UN human rights investigators have accused the US of stalling on their request to visit foreign terror suspects at the base. ALISON CALDWELL: The UN's independent human rights investigators have been trying to visit Guantanamo Bay since early 2002, and they say the United States has yet to respond to their requests. MANFRED NOWAK: We don't have a definite no, we have not been told you are not allowed to visit Guantanamo Bay, but we have also have not received a definite yes. ALISON CALDWELL: Manfred Nowak is the UN's special investigator on torture. He says his team needs full access to the facilities at Guantanamo Bay and the detainees who are being held there. But the US has refused to guarantee him the right to speak to the terror suspects in private. MANFRED NOWAK: We are very disappointed that a country that always was very, very strong and positive about high human rights standards all over the world, and which is also reminding other states that they should actually cooperate fully with the special mechanisms of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, itself is not living up to these standards. PAUL HUNT: The writ of international human rights does not stop at the gates of Guantanamo Bay ALISON CALDWELL: Paul Hunt monitors physical and mental health. He says many of the torture allegations have come to light through declassified US Government documents. PAUL HUNT: It is alleged that there are dozens of suicide attempts reportedly medical staff have assisted in the design of interrogation strategies, including sleep deprivation and other coercive interrogation methods. The best way for me to check the accuracy of these and other allegations concerning the health of detainees is of course to visit, to see the conditions for myself, to talk privately with detainees, and to discuss on site with medical staff and others. ALISON CALDWELL: US officials have allowed only the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit Guantanamo Bay detainees. The ICRC's findings are confidential. Only the detaining authority receives its report. But the UN's experts would be expected to make a public report. A US spokeswoman said the UN's request was being reviewed in Washington. The Bush administration has repeatedly denied allegations of torture at Guantanamo Bay. The Australian terror-suspect David Hicks has been held at Guantanamo Bay for three-and-a-half years. He's yet to be tried by the special military commission. TONY EASTLEY: Alison Caldwell. http://www.tios.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=2598788&fSectionId=1014&fSetId= US admits using torture June 25, 2005 Geneva: Washington has for the first time acknowledged to the United Nations that prisoners have been tortured at US detention centres in Guantanamo Bay, as well as in Afghanistan and Iraq. The acknowledgement was made in a report submitted yesterday to the UN Committee against Torture, said a member of the 10-person panel. The US mission to the UN institutions in Geneva was unavailable for comment on the report. "They are no longer trying to duck this, and have respected their obligation to inform the UN," the committee member said anonymously, adding that the US described the incidents as "isolated acts" carried out by low-ranking members of the military who were being punished. "They will have to explain themselves" to the committee, the member said. "Nothing should be kept in the dark." UN sources said it was the first time the world body had received such a frank statement on torture from US authorities. The committee is gathering information from the US ahead of hearings next May. Four UN human rights experts slammed the US this week for stalling on a request to allow visits to terrorism suspects held at its Guantanamo base in Cuba. - Sapa-AFP www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substanceânot soap-boxingâplease! 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