Amnesty International Responds to Detainee Deaths in Guantanamo Bay ("These apparent suicides")

WASHINGTON, June 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Jumana Musa, Amnesty International USA's advocacy director for Domestic Human Rights and International Justice, made the following statement in response to the deaths of three detainees held in U.S. detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba:

"These apparent suicides, while regrettable, are the tragic results of years of arbitrary and indefinite detention, and the latest chapter in the human rights travesty that has emerged from years of the administration's attempts to circumvent the rule of law. Amnesty International, the International Committee of the Red Cross, detainees' attorneys and others have long expressed grave concern over the psychological deterioration that results from prolonged detention without charge, trial, or any indication that their situation will be resolved.

"Amnesty International called for the closure of Guantanamo over a year ago, and the UN, the EU, and several U.S. allies have echoed that call. While the United States has an obligation to protect its citizens and those living within its borders from attacks by armed groups, that obligation does not relieve it from its absolute responsibility to comply with human rights and the rule of law. By rounding up men from all over the world and confining them in an isolated penal colony without charge or trial, the United States has violated several U.S. and international laws and treaties.

"Simple statements by the administration that these men are 'enemy combatants,' 'terrorists,' or 'very bad people' does not justify the complete lack of due process rights. Amnesty International calls on President Bush to close the detention facilities in Guantanamo, and either charge detainees with a recognizable criminal offense and give them a fair trial, or release them unconditionally. The President recently stated that he would like to 'end the Guantanamo.' He does not have to wait for the Supreme Court or any other governmental body to make it happen. Guantanamo and all of the various processes that came with it were a creation of the President and the executive branch, and the administration can choose to end this ill-advised policy.

"The Administration should stop trying to minimize the desperate actions of detainees with language that does not reflect the seriousness of the matter at hand. Colorful euphemisms such as 'manipulative self injurious behavior' and 'hanging gestures,' both used by the administration to refer to suicide attempts in the past, only belittle the gravity of the situation that detainees are facing and the extreme measures they are willing to take to escape the hopelessness with which they view their situation.

"Today's reported suicides of detainees in Guantanamo should serve as a wake up call to President Bush and his administration that Guantanamo is not just a public relations problem, but instead an indictment on its deteriorating human rights record."

Amnesty’s ‘Gulag’ Nonsense

Amnesty International’s virulent anti-Americanism has been garnering media attention lately. At TCS Daily today Melana Zyla Vickers here cites our May report (“Amnesty International’s Gulag Confusion: Political Left vs. Human Rights,” by Alex Svetlicinii) from Organization Trends.

In “Shamnesty Rides Again,” Vickers writes about how the current leadership of Amnesty International has turned the once-credible international human-rights watchdog into a mouthpiece for the anti-American left. AI has become “a two-trick pony whose main concerns are opposition to the Bush administration’s war in Iraq, the war on terror, and free markets, as well as the downplaying of human-rights violations by leftist regimes.”

“Amnesty International’s leftward leanings are not new. But until recently it still played a role in the important work of defending those who could not defend themselves. These days, the more the group's leaders abandon the human-rights agenda in favor of their petty concerns, the more Amnesty looks like an American anti-war group instead of a watchdog for the world. And the closer Amnesty gets to becoming old, blind, and forgetful, and to signing forgotten political prisoners' death warrants,” she writes.

As Svetlicinii wrote in Organization Trends, AI Secretary General Irene Khan invited well-deserved ridicule last year when she branded the U.S. military’s prison camp at Guantanamo Bay “the Gulag of our times.”

“Although Khan’s obscene statement shocked many, to anyone who has watched Amnesty International in recent years it came as little surprise. Indeed, the ‘Gulag’ remark was just the most egregious example of AI’s transformation from a respected human rights advocate to simply another left-wing organization with an anti-America bent,” Svetlicinii wrote.

Vickers notes at TCS that although AI’s most recent report leaves out the “ridiculous gulag comparison,” it shines a spotlight on what Khan calls “grave abuses in Afghanistan and Iraq.” Khan identifies as “the world’s biggest problem…counter-terrorism legislation Tony Blair introduced after London subway bombers killed 52 people and injured 700 in July 2005,” while downplaying North Korean, Cuban, and Belarussian human-rights atrocities.

--this blog post written by Matthew Vadum, editor of CRC’s publication, Organization Trends

http://www.capitalresearch.org/blog/default.asp?archiveID=461

What American Forces Press Service http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jun2006/20060610_5379.html says about it

Three Guantanamo Bay Detainees Die of Apparent Suicide
By Sgt. Sara Wood, USA
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 10, 2006 – Three detainees at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, died of apparent suicides early this morning, military officials reported today.
Two Saudis and one Yemeni, all located in Camp 1 of the detention center, were found unresponsive and not breathing in their cells, Navy Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris, commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo, said in a news conference. The first detainee was found shortly after midnight, and the other detainees were found within minutes, Harris said.

Medical teams responded quickly and all three detainees were provided immediate emergency medical treatment in attempts to revive them, Harris said. The three detainees were pronounced dead by a physician after all lifesaving measures had been exhausted, he said.

Harris, who arrived on the scene shortly after the detainees were pronounced dead, said the guard force and medical personnel acted in a professional manner and did everything they could to save the detainees' lives.

"I could see on the faces of the doctors, nurses and corpsmen that they were mourning the loss of a patient," Harris said. "They did exactly what they were trained to do."

The names of the deceased are not being released pending an investigation, said Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, commander of U.S. Southern Command. The U.S. State Department is in ongoing discussions with the governments of Saudi Arabia and Yemen in regards to the handling of the detainees' remains and notification of next of kin, he said.

A cultural advisor is assisting Joint Task Force Guantanamo to ensure that the remains are handled in an appropriate cultural and religious manner, Harris said. The bodies will not be buried within 24 hours, as per normal Islamic law, because autopsies must be performed, he said, but Joint Task Force Guantanamo has a religious fatwah, or law, from a reputable imam allowing for delays when the cause of death is uncertain.

The U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service has initiated an independent investigation to determine the cause and manner of death, Craddock said.

The detainees appear to have hanged themselves with nooses made from clothing and bed sheets, Harris said. The three detainees' cells were on the same cell block and were near each other, but not next to each other, he said.

Harris said the joint suicides were clearly planned by the detainees as a way to advance their cause in the war on terror.

"I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetric warfare aimed at us here at Guantanamo," he said. "We have men here who are committed jihadists. They are dangerous men and they will do anything they can to advance their cause."

The three detainees who died had all participated in a hunger strike at one time, Harris said. The Yemeni detainee was a long-term hunger striker who had begun his strike in 2005 and just ended it last month, he said. The other two detainees participated in one hunger strike in 2005 and another short one this year, he said.

The three detainees were not charged under military commissions and were not being actively interrogated, Harris said.

None of the three detainees had attempted suicide before, Harris said. Craddock added that all three had gone through combatant status review boards and administrative review boards, and none were on medication or had any indication of mental illness.

Harris said he believes the detainees were acting on a rumor circulating in the camps at Guantanamo that says three detainees must die for all the detainees to be released. This rumor has no basis and is not encouraged by the guard force, he said.

The suicides are not thought to be linked to the June 8 death of terrorist leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi, Harris said, because the detainees at Guantanamo do not yet know of his death.

All three detainees left suicide notes in Arabic, which are being included in the investigation, Craddock said.

The servicemembers at Guantanamo Bay are dedicated and, together with Joint Task Force Guantanamo leaders, have worked hard to ensure the conditions don't exist to allow for suicides, Harris said. However, the enemy combatants at Guantanamo are a determined group that will do anything they can to advance their cause, he said.

"These are dangerous men, and they're not here by accident or happenstance," he said.

Joint Task Force Guantanamo leaders are already reviewing procedures to look for ways to ensure things like this won't happen in the future, Harris said. For example, the guards have begun taking bed sheets away from detainees in the morning and giving them back at night, he said.

"We remain focused on our mission; it's a vital mission in the global war on terror," he said.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.