Guantanamo Hunger Strike

author : Erin Genia topic : Guantanamo Bay | torture

by Erin Genia

President Bush recently declared, "we do not torture," but ample evidence contradicts his claim. Perhaps most glaring is Vice President Cheney's attempt to immunize the CIA from torture prohibitions.

In the so-called "war on terror," the rule of law has been corroded by torture, prisoner mistreatment, indefinite detentions and "disappearances" by U.S. hands. Documented abuses include hooding, stress positions, withholding necessities, physical and sexual assault, religious animosity and humiliation. "Rendition" -- the transferral of detainees to countries that practice torture -- is a reality. These illegal and immoral procedures are occurring in the name of "security." In actuality, they undermine the very foundation of human rights.

Why have terror suspects not been fairly tried or charged? Without due process, there will be no justice for the victims of September 11th -- on whose behalf the "war on terror" has been waged -- or for those who have been wrongly detained. U.S. military officers have admitted that 70-90% of detainees in Iraq were arrested by mistake. Racial and religious discrimination are routine.

At Guantanamo Bay, detainees have been denied contact with their families and lawyers. In violation of U.S. and international law, cruel and inhumane treatment in handling and interrogation are customary. Detainees have been tagged "enemy combatants," a term created to exempt U.S. authorities from the Geneva Convention. In response to outcry, military commissions have taken place for a handful of the 500 detained at Guantanamo, but they do not meet judicial standards.

Many detainees exist in legal limbo, like Saeed Ahmed Al-Sarim, a Yemeni man who was captured in Pakistan in 2002. His family learned he was at Guantanamo through the Internet. Families of prisoners held incommunicado suffer unduly. Al-Samir's brother wrote that Saeed's four year-old daughter, Gheda, "waits everyday by the door" for her father's return.

Recent Guantanamo hunger strikes, which started this summer, reveal the desperation of detainees. Their demands for religious tolerance, improved conditions, and fair trials have been ignored. Abdul-Rahman Shalabi, a hunger-striker from Saudi Arabia, told his lawyer, "after four years in captivity, life and death are the same." Hunger strikers are reportedly being brutally force fed through large nasal gastric tubes.

Over 200 prisoners have taken part in the hunger strike. The Department of Defense has officially recognized only about 30 because the DOD defines a hunger strike as a refusal of nine consecutive meals in 72 hours. Many strikers accept meals, but then flush them down the toilet to avoid force feedings.

In an attempt to quell criticism, the U.S. invited UN human rights investigators -- four years after an official UN request -- to visit Guantanamo. The investigators declined, because prisoners could not be interviewed. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said the U.S. only allows access to prisoners by the neutral International Committee of the Red Cross. The ICRC disclosed that tactics used at Guantanamo are "tantamount to torture."

The abuses taking place at Guantanamo are characteristic of official U.S. conduct in the "war on terror," in Afghanistan and Iraq to secret facilities and elsewhere. No political or military goal can justify torture. When administration officials minimize allegations of torture and pursue exemptions from international law, consider the adage, "in war, truth is the first casualty." We must hold our leaders accountable, for the use of torture by the U.S. threatens human rights globally, ultimately making us all less secure.

Erin Genia is coordinator of Amnesty International chapter #474 in Olympia, Contact: (360) 956-0213 or emgenia@comcast.net.