Scharfe Kritik an Guantanamo-Report
Pentagon für mehr "soziale" Kontakte im Lager / Ex-Häftling erhebt schwere Foltervorwürfe
Von Olaf Standke *
Während USA-Justizminister Eric Holder am Montag erstmals das weltweit kritisierte Gefangenenlager Guantanamo besuchte, hat Admiral Patrick Walsh in Washington einen nicht weniger beanstandeten Bericht des Pentagon über die dortigen Haftbedingungen vorgestellt. Der Äthiopier Binyam Mohamed, der als erster seit Amtsantritt von Präsident Barack Obama frei gelassen wurde, hat jetzt schwere Foltervorwürfe erhoben.
Justizminister Holder inspizierte am Montag das Gefangenenlager Guantanamo, um sich über die dortigen Haftbedingungen und Verhörpraktiken informieren zu lassen. Obama hatte unmittelbar nach Amtsantritt angeordnet, die Haftanstalt auf dem Marinestützpunkt binnen eines Jahres zu schließen. Zurzeit werden hier schätzungsweise noch immer 245 Terrorverdächtige festgehalten – unter rechtmäßigen und humanen Bedingungen, wie ein vom Weißen Haus in Auftrag gegebener und gestern offiziell vorgestellter Pentagon-Report suggeriert. Die Zustände in Guantanamo entsprächen grundsätzlich den Vorgaben der Genfer Konvention, erklärte Admiral Patrick Walsh, räumte allerdings ein, dass mehr für die psychische Verfassung der Gefangenen getan werden könne. »Mehr sozialer Austausch ist unerlässlich, um dauerhaft eine menschenwürdige Behandlung zu wahren«, heißt es in dem Dokument. Der Schlüssel dazu seien »mehr Kontakte von Mensch zu Mensch, Freizeitangebote mit mehreren Gefangenen gemeinsam, intellektuelle Anreize und Gruppengebete«.
Walsh, Stellvertretender Oberbefehlshaber der Navy, in deren Verantwortungsbereich die Basis fällt, gab zu, dass es in der Vergangenheit nicht nur Defizite bei sozialen und religiösen Aktivitäten gegeben habe. Mehrfach sei »Fehlverhalten« von Wächtern festgestellt worden. Dabei gehe es um Beleidigungen und den Einsatz von Pfefferspray. Menschenrechtsgruppen und Häftlingsanwälte haben diese »beschönigende« Darstellung scharf kritisiert. Es handele sich um keinen unabhängigen Bericht, sondern um eine »Public-Relation-Geste« für den neuen Präsidenten, zitierte die »New York Times« am Dienstag. Wie das Zentrum für Verfassungsrechte (CCR) in New York erklärte, seien die Häftlinge keineswegs im Einklang mit den Genfer Konventionen untergebracht. »Die Haftbedingungen in den Lagern sind auf harte Bestrafung ausgerichtet und verletzen internationale und US-Rechtsstandards.« Während Guantanamo-Kritiker die Isolationshaft im Lager anprangern, spricht der Pentagon-Report davon, dass die Gefangenen »in Zellen mit Einzelbelegung« untergebracht seien.
Brandon Neely hat da ganz andere Erfahrungen gemacht. Der junge Gefreite bezog jetzt im Rahmen eines Projekts der Universität von Kalifornien als einer der ersten Wachleute zu den Vorgängen im Lager Stellung. Er empfinde Schuld und Scham darüber, wie die über Jahre ohne offizielle Anklage und ohne ausreichenden Rechtsbeistand festgehaltenen Gefangenen von einigen Wärtern behandelt worden seien. Demütigungen und Misshandlungen seien an der Tagesordnung gewesen. Rechtsanwältin Gitanjali Gutierrez, die einige Insassen vertritt, beklagte, dass es seit dem Regierungswechsel in Washington keine Verbesserungen in Guantanamo gegeben habe.
Schwere Vorwürfe erhebt auch Binyam Mohamed, der erste Guantanamo-Häftling, der seit dem Amtsantritt von Obama frei gelassen wurde. Nach fast fünf Jahren Haft ist der Äthiopier in sein früheres Asylland Großbritannien zurückgekehrt. In Guantanamo wurde er nach eigenen Angaben mehr als zweieinhalb Jahre ohne Rechtsbeistand in Isolationshaft gehalten. Er wirft der USA-Regierung und dem britischen Geheimdienst vor, »auf mittelalterliche Weise gefoltert« worden zu sein. Obwohl im Vorjahr die Anklagepunkte fallen gelassen wurden, blieb er in Haft. Wie die »Times« gestern schrieb, müsse der Generalstaatsanwalt nun untersuchen, ob es Rechtsverletzungen von britischen Agenten gegeben habe.
In Frankreich sind am Dienstag fünf ehemalige Guantanamo-Insassen vom Vorwurf des Terrorismus freigesprochen worden. Das Pariser Berufungsgericht hob mehrjährige Haft- und Bewährungsstrafen gegen die Franzosen auf, die nach ihrer Rückkehr verhängt worden waren. Die Ermittlungen seien »nicht ordnungsgemäß« verlaufen, hieß es in der Begründung. Die EU lotet derweil weiter die Möglichkeiten einer Aufnahme von Ex-Gefangenen aus. Beim Treffen der Innenminister am Donnerstag werde geprüft, ob es Auflagen für sie geben soll. Denkbar sei etwa eine Meldepflicht, hieß es in Brüssel. Bundesinnenminister Wolfgang Schäuble bekräftigte, dass hierzulande eine Aufnahme nur möglich sei, wenn es bei den Häftlingen einen Bezug zu Deutschland gebe.
* Aus: Neues Deutschland, 25. Februar 2009
Menschenrechtsorganisation weist Walsh-Report des Pentagon zurück
Im Folgenden dokumentieren wir eine Presseerklärung der angesehenen Menschenrechtsorganisation CCR (Center for Constitutional Rights)**, die sich kritisch mit dem Pentagon-Report auseinandersetzt. CCR hat vor kurzem einen eigenen Bericht über die Haftbedingungen in Guantánamo vorgelegt, wonach das Gefangenenlager nach wie vor gegen Gesetz und Rechtsstaatlichkeit verstößt. Die Camps 6 und 6 müssten sofort geschlossen werden, fordern die Experten.
CCR Releases Independent Report on Current Conditions at Guantánamo, Calls for Closure of Camps 5, 6, and Echo
Center for Constitutional Rights Experts Dispute Government Assertion That Guantánamo Complies With Geneva Conventions
February 23, 2009, New York – The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) released a report on the current conditions in Camps 5, 6, and Echo following the press conference today of Adm. Patrick M. Walsh, the vice chief of naval operations, who delivered his own report on conditions to the White House on Friday. Adm. Walsh determined in his report that conditions at the base meet the standards of the Geneva Conventions, an assertion the attorneys dispute.
CCR’s report, “Conditions of Confinement at Guantanamo: Still in Violation of the Law,” covers conditions at Guantánamo in January and February 2009 and includes new eyewitness accounts from attorneys and detainees. The authors address continuing abusive conditions at the prison camp, including conditions of confinement that violate U.S. obligations under the Geneva Conventions, the U.S. Constitution and international human rights law.
“The men at Guantánamo are deteriorating at a rapid rate due to the harsh conditions that continue to this day, despite a few cosmetic changes to their routines,” said CCR Staff Attorney Pardiss Kebriaei. “They are caught in a vicious cycle where their isolation causes psychological damage, which causes them to act out, which brings more abuse and keeps them in isolation. If they are going to be there another year, or even another day, this has to end.”
Despite President Obama’s executive order of January 22, 2009, requiring humane standards of confinement at Guantanamo and conformity with “all applicable laws governing the conditions of such confinement,” including the Geneva Conventions, attorneys assert that detainees at Guantanamo have continued to suffer from solitary confinement, psychological abuse, abusive force-feeding of hunger strikers, religious abuse, and physical abuse and threats of violence from guards and Immediate Reaction Force (IRF) teams.
The majority of the men being detained are in isolation. They go weeks without seeing the sun. Fluorescent lights, however, remain on 24 hours a day in Camp 5. According to the report, “improvements” cited by the military are, by and large, public relations activities rather than meaningful improvements in detainees’ conditions.
In a declaration made February 13, 2009, Col. Bruce Vargo, commander of the Joint Detention Group at Guantánamo, stated that, “There are no solitary confinement detention areas at JTF-GTMO…Detainees typically are able to communicate with other detainees either face-to-face or by spoken word from their cells throughout the day.” By this, say attorneys, he means that the men can yell through the metal food slot in the solid steel doors of their cells when it is left open and through the crack between the door and the floor.
The report details multiple cases of abuse occurring in the last month and a half. For example, “On the afternoon of January 7, 2009, Yasin Ismael was in one of the outdoor cages of Camp 6 for “recreation” time. The cage was entirely in the shade. Mr. Ismael asked to be moved to the adjoining empty cage because it had sunlight entering from the top. The guards, who were outside the cages, refused. One guard told Mr. Ismael that he was “not allowed to see the sun.” Angered, Mr. Ismael threw a shoe against the inner mesh side of the cage; which bounced harmlessly back onto the cage floor. The guards, however, accused Mr. Ismael of attacking them and left him in the cage as punishment. He eventually fell asleep on the floor of the cage, but hours later he was awakened by the sound of an IRF team entering the cage in the dark. The team shackled him, and he put up no resistance. They then beat him. They blocked his nose and mouth until he felt that he would suffocate, and hit him repeatedly in the ribs and head. They then took him back to his cell. As he was being taken back, a guard urinated on his head. Mr. Ismael was badly injured and his ear started to bleed, leaving a large stain on his pillow. The attack on Mr. Ismael was confirmed by at least one other detainee.”
One detainee in Camp 6 wrote to his attorney in January 2009, “As I told you, we are in very bad condition, suffering from aggression, beating and IRF teams, as well as the inability to sleep except for a few hours. Soldiers here are on a high alert state and if one of us dares to leave his cell and comes back without any harm, he is considered as a man who survived an inevitable danger.
Hunger strikes continue among a large number of men at Guantanamo. Hunger strikers are brutally force-fed using a restraint chair and often unsanitary feeding tubes, and are beaten for refusing food, a practice that continued within the last month and a half. Force-feeding hunger strikers is considered by the World Medical Association to be a violation of medical ethics and has continued unabated since President Obama’s Executive Order.
Detainees are still denied access to communal prayer: military officials continue to classify hearing a call to prayer through a food slot as communal prayer, which does not comport with the requirements of Islam. There has been no Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo since 2003, despite repeated requests. In addition, the report found that then men are also subject to body search procedures that require the men to subject themselves to a scanner that visually strips the men naked each time they leave their cells for attorney meetings or recreation. This humiliating and degrading experience, particularly given the men’s strong religious background, has led them to stay in their cells all day, refusing attorney meetings and recreation entirely.
The Center for Constitutional Rights issued a series of recommendations to ensure the conditions at Guantanamo satisfy legal standards for the humane treatment of the detainees during the interim period while its closure is being implemented. They are, in brief,
-
Close Camps 5, 6 and Echo immediately, end solitary confinement, and move the men there to facilities with lawful and humane conditions of confinement.
- End religious abuse of detainees, including the violations of detainees’ right to practice their religion freely and the use of routine strip scanning and strip searching.
- Cease the use of IRF teams and all other physical abuse of detainees immediately, including ending temperature manipulation and sleep deprivation.
- End the feeding of individuals against their will or under coercive circumstances.
- Allow detainees immediate access to independent medical and psychological professionals and cease the practice of forcible medication of detainees.
“If President Obama is going to uphold the law and enforce his own Executive Order, he must close Camps 5, 6, and Echo and improve conditions immediately,” said CCR Executive Director Vincent Warren. “He should quickly remedy and end the Guantánamo created by his predecessor, not embrace a whitewash of it. I hope Attorney General Eric Holder has a freer hand to report the true conditions at the base from his visit there today than did Adm. Walsh, whose boss has overseen Guantánamo for the last two years.”
To read the full report,
click here.
CCR has led the legal battle over Guantanamo for the last six years – sending the first ever habeas attorney to the base and sending the first attorney to meet with a former CIA “ghost detainee” there. CCR has been responsible for organizing and coordinating more than 500 pro bono lawyers across the country in order to represent the men at Guantanamo, ensuring that nearly all have the option of legal representation. In addition, CCR has been working to resettle the approximately 60 men who remain at Guantánamo because they cannot return to their country of origin for fear of persecution and torture.
** The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.
(Source: Website of the CCR: http://ccrjustice.org)
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