Guantanamo Bay, "the gulag of our time"

[paineinthearse]

‘GUANTANAMO HAS BECOME THE GULAG OF OUR TIME’: In yesterday’s release of its annual human rights report, Amnesty International didn’t whitewash U.S. detention centers – the way the State Department did – http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=393339 - but rather shone a bright light on their condition. The 308-page report “branded” the facility in Guantanamo as “a human rights failure” that needed to be closed, with Amnesty Secretary General Irene Khan calling it “the gulag of our time.” Amnesty also “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.” The group stated, “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.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/25/AR2005052500367.html

Amnesty Takes Aim at 'Gulag' in Guantanamo

By PAISLEY DODDS
The Associated Press
Wednesday, May 25, 2005; 12:47 PM

LONDON -- 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.

In the harshest rebuke yet of U.S. detention policies, 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.

The U.S. Department of Defense said abuse allegations are investigated and it was continuing to evaluate whether detainees should be sent home. Review tribunals also "provided an appropriate venue for detainees to meaningfully challenge their enemy combatant designation," the department said in a statement. "The detention of enemy combatants is not criminal in nature, but to prevent them from continuing to fight against the United States in the war on terrorism," it added. "This is an unprecedented level of process being provided to our enemies in a time of war." the Department of Defense said, adding that abuse allegations are investigated.

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. The report also warned other governments from Sudan to Congo that victims in other conflicts around the world were being forgotten in the fight against terrorism. 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.

more.....
___

On the Net:

Amnesty International: http://www.amnesty.org

Amnesty International Report 2005

The state of the world's human rights

During 2004, the human rights of ordinary men, women and children were disregarded and grossly abused in every corner of the globe. The Amnesty International Report 2005, covering 149 countries, is a detailed picture of these abuses.

Read the full report - http://www.amnesty.org/report2005

Amnesty International Report 2005
During 2004, the human rights of ordinary men, women and children were disregarded or grossly abused in every corner of the globe. Economic interests, political hypocrisy and socially orchestrated discrimination continued to fan the flames of conflict around the world. The “war on terror” appeared more effective in eroding international human rights principles than in countering international “terrorism”. The millions of women who suffered gender-based violence in the home, in the community or in war zones were largely ignored. The economic, social and cultural rights of marginalized communities were almost entirely neglected.

This Amnesty International Report, which covers 149 countries, highlights the failure of national governments and international organizations to deal with human rights violations, and calls for greater international accountability.

The report also acknowledges the opportunities for positive change that emerged in 2004, often spearheaded by human rights activists and civil society groups. Calls to reform the UN human rights machinery grew in strength, and there were vibrant campaigns to make corporations more accountable, strengthen international justice, control the arms trade and stop violence against women.

Whether in a high profile conflict or a forgotten crisis, Amnesty International campaigns for justice and freedom for all and seeks to galvanize public support to build a better world.

[dzika]

1. A damning report

From the Americas Overview:

Respect for human rights remained an illusion for many as governments across the Americas failed to comply with their commitments to uphold fundamental human rights. Widespread torture, unlawful killings by police and arbitrary detention persisted. The US-led “war on terror” continued to undermine human rights in the name of security, despite growing international outrage at evidence of US war crimes, including torture, against detainees.

(...)

The blatant disregard for international human rights and humanitarian law in the “war on terror” continued to make a mockery of President George Bush’s claims that the USA was the global champion of human rights. Images of detainees in US custody tortured in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq shocked the world. War crimes in Iraq, and mounting evidence of the torture and ill-treatment of detainees in US custody in other countries, sent an unequivocal message to the world that human rights may be sacrificed ostensibly in the name of security.

[Flying Dream Blues]

2. Besides the US, I believe

others singled out were Sudan, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe. Great company...just bringing our light to the world! :sarcasm:

[MisterP]

3. Sudan and Afghanistan are our allies in the Glorious Warren Terra now

[killbotfactory]

4. It's an inquisition

Hold people captive for being in a suspect "area". Don't tell them what they did. "Interrogate" them randomly while holding them indefinately until they "confess" or are determined "guilty". All while trumping up how dangerous to our way of life they are without any proof of that "fact".

[Divernan]

5. Some major differences -- between gulags & Gitmo

The gulags started out after the Russian revolution, when many of the white Russians/merchant class were sent there and into heavy forced labor, with deliberate crippling, starving and torture of prisoners. But they evolved, especially under Stalin, into massive forced labor camps. Over 18 million people passed through the gulags - some 6 million died there. these men carved canals, highways and railroads into the wilderness; and mined gold, uranium and lead. They even designed military aircraft and rockets. Russia's modern economy is built quite literally on the bones of these slaves. The Soviets even exported the concept of forced labor camps to China, where they helped the Chinese set them up. Those camps exist to this day, and Walmart et al import these extremely cheap Chineses goods made by slave labor. And we, to our shame, buy them.

So the Soviet gulags were vastly larger than Gitmo, and their prisoners spent their days working. By contrast, Guantanamo is a tiny, "boutique" system, devoted exclusively to torture. The ratio of guards/military staff to prisoners is the reverse of the Soviet system. And although the Soviets may have sent people from countries outside of the USSR to the gulags, they kept it secret, and the vast majority of slaves were their own citizens.There is an broad and deep scope of contempt for the rule of law and international comity in Gitmo that is unprecedented in history, and I guess the gulags are the closest thing Amnesty could find for comparison.

For more information about the gulags, see the book by Anne Appelbaum: Gulag: A Hisory, published by Doubleday a couple of years ago.

[DrDebug]

6. It was a very long and damning report

I hope that Bush is proud of the fact that he had the longest story in the whole Amnesty Report and the Iraq section is getting close to the size of the section on Russia and China as well.

A report for another country:

Russia

Serious human rights violations continued to be committed in the context of the conflict in the Chechen Republic (Chechnya), belying claims by the authorities that the situation was “normalizing ”. The security forces enjoyed virtual impunity for abuses. Chechen armed opposition groups were responsible for abuses including bomb attacks and hostage-taking in which hundreds of people were killed. Human rights defenders and people pursuing justice for human rights violations through the European Court of Human Rights were harassed and assaulted; several were killed or “disappeared ”.

Several thousand people displaced from Chechnya remained in Ingushetia,despite pressure from the authorities to return.The human rights situation in Ingushetia deteriorated,especially following an
attack by a Chechen armed opposition group in Ingushetia in June. Torture and ill-treatment in places of detention continued to be reported throughout the Russian Federation. Attacks,some of them fatal,on members of ethnic and national minorities and on foreign nationals were reported in many regions but convictions for racist attacks were rare.
(...)
Abuses by armed groups
(...)
Violence against women in Chechnya
(...)
Conflict spreads beyond Chechnya
(...)
Racially motivated crimes
(...)
Human rights defenders ... some were tortured and killed.
(...)
Media freedom
(...)
Torture and ill-treatment
(...)
Fair trial concerns
(...)
Violence against women

It is starting to sound familiar as well. The US is catching up on Russia, but in this case it is not a good thing, because it is not Russia which is improving their human rights that much. The catching up happens in a different fashion :(

[DrDebug]

7. For comparison

United States of America

Hundreds of detainees continued to be held without charge or trial at the US naval base in Guantánamo Bay,Cuba.Thousands of people were detained during US military and security operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and routinely denied access to their families and lawyers.Military investigations were initiated or conducted into allegations of torture and ill-treatment of detainees by US personnel in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and into reports of deaths in custody and ill-treatment by US forces elsewhere in Iraq,and in Afghanistan and Guantánamo.

Evidence came to light that the US administration had sanctioned interrogation techniques that violated the UN Convention against Torture.Pre-trial military commission hearings opened in Guantánamo but were suspended pending a US court ruling.

In the USA,more than 40 people died after being struck by police tasers,raising concern about the safety of such weapons.The death penalty continued to be imposed and carried out.
(...)
International Criminal Court
(...)
Guantánamo Bay
(...)
Detentions in Afghanistan and Iraq
(...)
Detentions in undisclosed locations
(...)
Military commissions
(...)
Torture and ill-treatment of detainees outside the USA
(...)
Detentions of ‘enemy combatants ’ in the USA
(...)
Prisoners of conscience
(...)
Refugees,migrants and asylum-seekers
(...)
Ill-treatment and excessive use of force by law enforcement officials
(...)
Death penalty

[Nothing Without Hope]

8. Important and recommended - and let's not forget the CIA and their

kidnappings, torturings and "disappearances" of people all over the world. This is known in the rest of the world but a secret - thanks to the fascist-collaborating corporate media - in our own country. The following thread is about a recent artcile on this in a French diplomatic publication by the respected British investigative journalist Stephen Grey. (Think Seymour Hersh.) His work on this subject has been broadcast on the BBC and published in places like the Sunday Times (London).

Some of the links in this thread show that some people in this country have figured it out.

The terms "extradordinary rendition" and "ghost planes" - watch for them. This is a hideous secret.

The thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1740193
Thread title: “MUST READ- French article on US TORTURE with interviews of ex-CIA agents”

[thecai]

9. A.I. Needs To Investigate Gulag Prisons in America

Texas is one of the WORST states for inmate abuse/neglect/murder. Plus, the Bush Family owns stock in Privatized Prisons (slave-factories), where abuse and corruption is just as bad, or worse...