United Nations Human Rights Experts Express Continued Concern ...

[struggle4progress]

... about Situation of Guantanamo Bay Detainees

This statement was issued today by the following six United Nations human rights experts: Leïla Zerrougui, Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights; Stephen J. Toope, Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances of the Commission; Manfred Nowak, the Commission’s Special Rapporteur on torture; Paul Hunt, the Commission’s Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; Leandro Despouy, the Commission’s Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, and Cherif Bassiouni, Independent Expert appointed by the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan. <snip>

( a ) Both the international armed conflict in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq have been over for more than 18 months now. The Third Geneva Convention, dealing with prisoners of war, mandates that any prisoner of war must be released “without delay after the end of hostilities”. The legal basis for the continued detention of the GuantánamoBay inmates is therefore unclear. In any event, many of them were arrested in countries which were not parties to any armed conflict involving the United States of America; <snip>

( c ) The exact number and the names of the persons detained at GuantánamoBay continue to be unknown. This situation is extremely disconcerting and is conducive to the unacknowledged transfer of inmates to other, often secret, detention facilities, whether run by the United States or by other countries. This situation is of particular concern to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances; <snip>

( e ) The need to objectively assess the allegations of torture, and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, particularly in relation to methods of interrogation of detainees, that have been brought to the attention of the Special Rapporteur on torture; <snip>

http://i-newswire.com/pr6043.html

[jmcgowanjm]

1. leaving the patient on the table to die.”

“One of my colleagues, Dr. Saleh Alsawi, he was speaking
so angrily about them. He was in the main hospital when
they raided it at the beginning of the seige. They entered
the theater room when they were working on a patient…he
was there because he’s an anesthesiologist. They entered
with their boots on, beat the doctors and took them out,
leaving the patient on the table to
die.”

http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/dispatches/000196.php#more


Wilhelm Keitel
Count I:            Indicted            Guilty
Count II:           Indicted            Guilty
Count III:         Indicted            Guilty
Count IV:         Indicted            Guilty

Sentenced to:    Death by hanging

Keitel was the Chief of Staff of the High Command of the
Armed Forces while Hitler was in power.  He attended all of
the conferences that discussed the plans for war.  Many of
these meetings were with Hitler, Jodl, and Raeder.  Although
he testified he was opposed to the invasion of the U.S.S.R.,
he ultimately helped plan the invasion.  Evidence also
showed Keitel was aware of the plans to rid Poland of
Jewish people.  He also issued orders to kill
Communists.

There was no mitigation evidence to be heard, and his
defense that he was just following orders as a soldier is
not valid under the Charter.
 
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/NurembergIndictments.html

[jmcgowanjm]

2. At that time a CNN crew was escorted in by the military

“And I’ve seen them use the media-and on January 2nd at
the north checkpoint in the north part of Fallujah, they were
giving people $200 per family to return to Fallujah so they
can film them in the line…when actually, at that time,
nobody was returning to Fallujah,” he says. It reminds me of
the story my colleague told me of what he saw in January. At
that time a CNN crew was escorted in by the military to film
street cleaners that were brought in as props, and
soldiers handing out candy to
children.

(Mafkarat al Islam reported this first.)

“I’ve been there, and I saw that anyone who even turns their
head is threatened and hit by both American and Iraqi
soldiers alike…one man did this, and when the Iraqi soldier
tried to humiliate him, the man took a gun of a nearby
soldier and killed two ING, so then of course he was
shot.”

http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/dispatches/000196.php#more