NEWS:
British Residents:
The Foreign Office has confirmed that the case of Shaker Aamer was
raised by David Cameron with Barack Obama during the G8 conference. David
Cameron has also written to Shaker Aamer’s daughter about her father’s plight.
The Foreign Office has said that the government will continue to make
representations on his behalf.
British resident Ahmed Belbacha, currently on hunger strike, told the
BBC through his lawyers that force-feeding is painful and causes prisoners to
vomit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/22973263
Guantánamo Bay:
The hunger strike is now in its fifth month. The US Defense Department
has put the number of those on hunger strike at 104 with several dozen being
force fed to keep them alive.
In response to a letter by 13 prisoners sent to the prison authorities
at the end of last month asking to be examined by independent doctors, 150 doctors
signed a letter in “The Lancet” demanding that they be given access to the
prisoners so they can check and assess their health situation.
Medical doctors have also called on medical staff working at Guantánamo
Bay not to comply with military orders which go against medical ethics;
however, the force-feeding and other medical abuses of prisoners continue.
Pre-trial hearings
resumed at Guantánamo Bay this month. In the case of Abd Al-Rahim Al Nashiri,
a Yemeni citizen, accused of involvement in the bombing of US warships in the
Gulf of Aden at the beginning of the 2000s, a medical assessment has established
that he is suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
but is otherwise fit to stand trial. http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/01/3428534/guantanamo-captive-accused-in.html
His hearing resumed on 11 June, during which motions were considered on secret
information held by the US authorities, including a motion about information
that is so secret “that those who’ve read it can’t say
what it’s about, and those who haven’t don’t have a clue.” The defence also sought to have information
disclosed about the years he spent in secret illegal CIA prisons at various
locations around the world where he was tortured. Arguments were also heard on
whether he should be allowed to hear all of the evidence against him in person.
In the end, he was excluded from part of the pre-trial hearing, although his
lawyers were not.
Charges have been brought against another Guantánamo prisoner, 52-year
old Abd Al-Hadi Al-Iraqi, an Iraqi national and one of the 16 so-called “high-value”
prisoners held there. He has been charged with perfidy, for allegedly coordinating
suicide attacks on US interests in Afghanistan. The charges have to be reviewed
and approved by the Pentagon and carry a maximum life sentence. He has been
held at Guantánamo Bay since 2007: www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/10/3444080/charges-sought-for-iraqi-held.html
Secrecy issues have also dogged the pre-trial hearing of five men
accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks. Part of the secrecy involves the
use of evidence obtained through the use of torture including waterboarding;
one of the defendants, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times.
Later, during the hearing, the courtroom was cleared after a defence lawyer
claimed he had been threatened by the prosecution. Pre-trial hearings in both
cases will resume later this year.
Following promises to take action on Guantánamo Bay last month, Barack
Obama has appointed a new special envoy to work on the closure of Guantánamo, Clifford Sloan, a senior lawyer with political
experience in Washington. He will resume the work of the office to close Guantánamo
within the State Department, which was closed down in late January, just days
before the current hunger strike started.
Barack Obama’s administration has for the first time revealed the list
of 48 prisoners it has listed for “indefinite detention” without charge or
trial, who are unlikely to be released from Guantánamo as the US considers them
to be too dangerous, too dangerous to even let them or the world know why. The
list was disclosed following an application under the Freedom of Information
Act. Two of the prisoners on the 2009 list have since died. Earlier this year,
a senior lawyer for the US government denied that there was any indefinite
detention of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay; in 2011, Barack Obama passed a law enacting
the indefinite detention of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay.
Former Guantánamo prisoner Omar Khadr was sent to the Edmonton
maximum-security prison at the end of May, after being transferred from the
Milhaven Institution, also known as Canada’s “Guantánamo North”. Negotiations
about the move took two months and during his stay at Milhaven, Omar Khadr
spent all but three weeks in solitary confinement. His lawyer Dennis Edney has
hailed the move as a positive step and hopes that he will have a chance to
resume his education, which he was prevented from doing at Milhaven. http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/edmonton/Omar+Khadr+been+transferred+Edmonton+Institution/8450166/story.html
A military report into the death of Yemeni prisoner Adnan Latif, found
dead in his cell in September 2012, alleges that he died as a result of a drugs
overdose and cites lapses, which remain unexplained, in prison security leading
to his death. The 79-page report claims he hoarded pills for himself and
died after ingesting 24 in one go. However, the US military has made sure it is
impossible for an independent autopsy to be carried out and cause of death to
be established.
Extraordinary rendition:
Two American contractors in Iraq Donald Vance & Nathan Ertel, who
claimed they had been tortured and held illegally by US soldiers in Iraq for
several months for blowing the whistle on their employer, whom they claimed was
gunrunning, lost their case against Donald Rumsfeld for torture. The pair
brought an appeal before the US Supreme Court against the former Defense
Secretary for the illegal actions of a subordinate; the ruling held that Rumsfeld “cannot be held liable for actions taken by subordinates that may
have crossed legal bounds.” They
argued that Rumsfeld had personally approved their detention and torture.
Amnesty International launched a new report this month cataloguing
Poland’s involvement in the CIA’s extraordinary rendition programme and calling
on the Polish authorities to hold a thorough examination http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/poland-reveal-truth-about-secret-cia-detention-site-2013-06-12
The report, entitled “Unlock the truth: Poland’s involvement in CIA secret
detention,” states that “Secrecy and delay cannot be used
as tactics to avoid accountability. The Polish government must come clean about
a period in the country’s history when those in authority appear to have
colluded with the USA and other states in the unlawful apprehension of people
and their transfer to places where they were tortured and subjected to enforced
disappearance. [...] The genie is out of the bottle – there is a
stream of credible public reports by the media, intergovernmental, and
non-governmental organizations – not to mention official data from Polish
governmental agencies – that leaves little doubt that Poland hosted a secret
detention site operated by the CIA. If there is enough evidence to lay charges
against former officials and intelligence operatives for their participation in
these illegal activities, those people should be prosecuted now.”
The two prisoners
who have brought claims against the Polish government are Abd Al-Nashiri and
Abu Zubaydah, both currently held at and facing prosecution at Guantánamo Bay.
On the day the report was published, 12 June, a third prisoner, Saudi Walid Bin
Al-Attash, joined their claim against Poland.
Lithuania assumes
the rotating presidency of the European Union for 6 months on 1st
July. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has taken the opportunity this presents to call
on Lithuania to reopen its investigation into complicity in extraordinary
rendition. After a positive start, with an investigation in 2010, this was closed a year later inconclusively. Last year, the European Parliament called
on Lithuania to reopen its investigation too. Lithuania is alleged to have been
involved in running a secret torture facility for the CIA and facilitating
torture flights. Its involvement is considered to have taken place between 2001
and 2006. HRW said, “Lithuania is betraying the fundamental principles of human
rights that underline the European Union by refusing to investigate serious
allegations of human rights crimes, such as disappearances and torture. The
country holding the EU’s presidency should have the courage and leadership to
confront wrongdoing and make amends.”
LGC Activities:
The June LGC “Shut
Down Guantánamo!” demonstration was attended by 10 people. At this
demonstration, the LGC was joined by the family of Shawki Ahmed Omar, a
Palestinian-American prisoner on hunger strike in an Iraqi jail where he has
been held and tortured for the past 8 years. To learn more about his and their
story, please read: http://onesmallwindow.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/starved-of-justice-in-iraq-american-prisoner-on-hunger-strike/
The next monthly demonstration
coincides with US Independence and will thus be an open mic demonstration at
which individuals and groups are invited to share their thoughts and raise
awareness of issues of joint US/UK interest. This demonstration will be at 6-8pm on
Thursday 4 July outside the US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, W1A https://www.facebook.com/events/638519959509082/
The LGC organised a rally in Trafalgar
Square on 26 June to mark international day in support of victims of torture. The
theme this year is the right to rehabilitation, of which justice is a key
element. Around 60 people joined the LGC rally, and there was a very positive
response by passers-by, many of whom did not know the significance of this date
or about the hunger strike or continuing torture at Guantánamo Bay. The LGC
rally was preceded by a rally by the UK Baluch community, a persecuted ethnic minority
in Pakistan and Iran; this rally was supported by the LGC.
LGC report of this event:
Other media:
On 28 June, UN
Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, answered questions on human
rights on BBC World Services’ World Have Your Say programme. The LGC was
invited to ask one question about Guantánamo Bay. Ms Pillay has been
unequivocal in her condemnation of Guantánamo Bay and the hunger strike there. In
response to a question by Aisha Maniar from the LGC concerning why the UN has
not defined terrorism clearly, thereby allowing regimes such as that operated
at Guantánamo to exist, Ms Pillay stated “I do
take your point and I’m going to go and personally examine again how the United
Nations has defined terrorism and compare that with national legal systems as
well.” As stated by Aisha Maniar, a clear definition of
terrorism would prevent arbitrary detention and arbitrary punishment as well as
the impunity of states for their violations of human rights. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMPvjai3yKM
(from 25:00 onwards)
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