26 June: Torture Victims Have a Right to Rehabilitation

Solidarity Vigil

As we have done every year since 2010, the London Guantánamo Campaign held a vigil in solidarity with victims and survivors of torture everywhere on Friday 26 June to mark UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. The silent vigil, held in Trafalgar Square on a busy Friday evening was attended by around 40 people and supported by the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign.

Noel Hamel (centre) with the banner he made for this event)

One of dozens of events held worldwide to mark this important date, the theme this year is the right to rehabilitation. This involves a number of factors to help restore survivors to the situation they were in – physically, mentally, psychologically, materially – prior to being tortured as best as is possible. It covers a variety of means such as compensation, physical rehabilitation, therapy, justice and guarantees it will not happen again. Although a human right, many victims do not receive any such treatment or facilities.

The right to rehabilitation was highlighted at the vigil with placards, leaflets handed out with information on the issue and banners mentioning the relevant UN articles on rehabilitation for torture victims. Although usually very well received and supported by the general public, increasing misinformation and propaganda in the mainstream media over various issues has left quite a few people confused about what torture is and who torture victims are.

Right to Rehabilitation and Guantánamo Prisoners*

The right to rehabilitation is a major issue for both former and the remaining 112 Guantánamo prisoners. All are survivors of torture both at the prison camp and in other US military and CIA-run facilities. The release at the end of 2014 of a redacted version of the US Senate report into CIA torture under the so-called War on Terror has shed further light on the abuses and inhumane practices prisoners – the vast majority of whom have never been charged or tried – have been subjected to.

Earlier this month, gruesome details were published of the torture faced by Majid Khan who after being kidnapped in Pakistan in 2003 was held at secret CIA torture prisons between 2003 and 2006 until being taken to Guantánamo Bay. Earlier this year, lawyers for one of the defendants facing trial for alleged involvement in the September 11 2001 attacks revealed details of the torture their client suffered through CIA torture and from which he still suffers due to inadequate medical care, including the inability to sit down comfortably due to rape.

 

Few prisoners have ever received adequate medical care at Guantánamo Bay. It was only in 2014 that Omar Khadr, held at Guantánamo Bay for over a decade, and released to his native Canada in 2012 finally received treatment for a shoulder injury he sustained in 2002. A former Russian prisoner, released in 2004, still has a bullet lodged in his thigh from an injury in an Afghan prison in 2001 due to inadequate care at Guantánamo and in Russia. 

In addition, the response to prisoners protesting their indefinite detention through hunger strikes has been met with more torture through force-feeding. The long-term effects of such action on the body are not dealt with and can lead to further health complications later on. The US must provide the prisoners it is currently holding with adequate medical care and also expedite periodic reviews of prisoners held without charge or trial, deemed “forever prisoners”, as a means of rehabilitation.

For prisoners who are released, rehabilitation can remain a challenge. With the current drive to empty Guantánamo by the Obama administration, over the past year, many of those released have been sent to third countries due to insecurity and war in their own countries of origin. As the US washes its hands of prisoners as soon as they are released, some can find themselves facing almost-complete isolation and poverty in their new surroundings. In May 2015, a former prisoner released to Kazakhstan at the end of 2014 died of kidney failure due to inadequate medical care at Guantánamo and after his release. 

 

While the US is applauded for prisoner releases, not much emphasis is put on the often precarious situations former prisoners find themselves in post-release. The US must ensure that all prisoners are released to countries where they are safe and their physical and moral integrity is not compromised. They must be guaranteed the right to rehabilitation, including legal, medical and financial assistance.

 

The London Guantánamo Campaign remains committed to ensuring justice for all Guantánamo prisoners. While we emphasised how this issue affects Guantánamo prisoners, it relates closely as well to all prisoners who have been and are the subject of extraordinary rendition, an ongoing programme by the CIA.

Media of the event:

http://www.demotix.com/news/7951250/london-vigil-un-international-day-support-victims-torture#media-7951240

* These issues were raised at a meeting held in the UK parliament on Tuesday 23 June 2015 on the case of British resident and Guantánamo prisoner Shaker Aamer by Aisha Maniar, organiser of the London Guantánamo Campaign

THE TORTURE TRAP: 26 June vigil for International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

The London Guantánamo Campaign invites you to join us at

THE TORTURE TRAP

a solidarity vigil in support of victims of torture on

UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

At 5.30-7pm, on Friday 26 June 2015

outside the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square

Torture is a life sentence without a judge or a jury. It is not used to obtain a reliable confession but to break the tortured individual and serve as an example to others. The physical and mental trauma of torture continues to haunt the lives of victims, and often their families and communities, long after the physical pain has ended. Where torture is used in a systematic and widespread manner, whole societies can be traumatised.

Torture survivors have a right to rehabilitation, yet for many, there is often little official recognition of what they have suffered.

The London Guantánamo Campaign invites you to join us and stand in recognition of the suffering and rights of victims and survivors of torture: a humane gesture alien to many in positions of power able to put an end to the use of torture.

ALL ARE WELCOME

For more details, e-mail london.gtmo@gmail.com or call 07809 757 176

https://www.facebook.com/events/1622457504632908/

 

The London Guantánamo has been campaigning since 2006 for the return of all British residents from the Guantánamo Bay prison camp, the release of all prisoners, the closure of this prison and other similar prisons and an end to the practice of extraordinary rendition. Human rights for all.

LGC Newsletter – May 2015

BRITISH RESIDENTS:

On 19-20 May, a delegation of four British MPs – Jeremy Corbyn (Labour), Andy Slaughter (Labour), Andrew Mitchell (Conservative) and David Davies (Conservative) – from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Shaker Aamer travelled to the US to raise awareness of the plight of the last British resident in Guantánamo Bay, Shaker Aamer, who has been held there without charge or trial for over 13 years. During the intense two-day visit, meetings were held in Washington between the MPs and the British Ambassador, the Special Envoy for the Closure of Guantanamo, Ambassador Paul Lewis from the Pentagon, acting Special Envoy Charles Trumbull from the State Department. They held discussions with influential Senators and attorneys including John McCain (Rep. Arizona), Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Joe Manchin (Dem, West Virginia), member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Bill Monahan, senior  counsel to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Patrick Leahy, (Dem. Vermont), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dianne Feinstein (Dem, California), Chair and ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Dick Durbin, (Dem. Illinois), Chair and Ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law. US officials were informed of concerns and interest in the UK in the case and popular support for Shaker Aamer to return to his family here, as well as MPs raising the fact that the continued detention of Aamer, in spite of repeat requests from the UK for his return, is undermining the special relationship between the two states.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3093676/Special-relationship-UK-risk-case-Guantanamo-Briton-Shaker-Aamer.html

Funding for the delegation was made possible through efforts by the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign, including a day-long ‘cage’ action in Trafalgar Square on 16 May, which raised both funds and awareness.

Following similar media reports in April, on 27 May, Shaker Aamer’s lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith from Reprieve reported on BBC radio that he had been informed by various US officials that Shaker Aamer could be released within weeks and could be reunited with his family as early as June. However, similar reports by officials have been made in the past and did not materialise.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32899003

NEWS:

Guantánamo Bay:

On 1^st May, in an unusual step, the US government won a military commission appeal which means that the conviction of former Sudanese prisoner, Ibrahim Al-Qosi, who was convicted in 2010 and returned to Sudan in 2012 after serving his sentence, remains intact. In a short judgment, judges dismissed the appeal as his lawyer lacked jurisdiction as she did not have his permission to represent him in the appeal. The military commission court had however denied her application for funding to travel to Sudan to get his permission to do so. One of his convictions – for material support for terrorism – has since been successfully appealed by others. This is only the second of seven sentences handed down by the military commission court that remains intact.

It is not just the prisoners at Guantánamo Bay that US military staff bully and abuse. Although no one has been charged or convicted for the abuse of prisoners, in mid-May, Staff Sgt. Dustin A. Barker from Scott, Kentucky was found guilty of ‘hazing’ -humiliating and intentionally physically abusing - Marines at Guantánamo in 2013. In one incident he ordered one marine to punch another so hard that he urinated blood. He was found guilty of the charges and demoted in rank.

http://usmclife.com/2015/05/marine-convicted-of-hazing-incidents-has-rank-reduced/

A retired Supreme Court judge has called for some prisoners to be compensated for having knowingly been held illegally by the US. He said that prisoners who continue to be detained after being cleared for release should be given reparations as the US knows that they do not pose a threat to it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/05/05/john-paul-stevens-says-some-guantanamo-bay-detainees-should-be-given-reparations/

Having won the right to be bailed by a Canadian court in late April, Omar Khadr’s hearing at which his bail term would be heard was delayed from Tuesday 5 May to Thursday 7 May, as there was an election being held in the state of Alberta. On Thursday, the judge agreed to generous bail terms while Khadr appeals his military commission conviction in the US and dismissed an appeal against bail by the Canadian government. Leaving the court, it was the first time Khadr has walked through a door pushed by him and freely in almost 13 years. He is currently living with the family of his lawyer Dennis Edney QC in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He spoke to the press on the evening of his release and was the subject of a documentary – the first time he has been able to speak to the press – that was aired on Canadian television on 28 May and will be repeated on Al Jazeera in early June.

On 14 May, in a further victory, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that – while detained – Omar Khadr should be treated as a juvenile and not an adult offender. Now bailed, the ruling in moot but was brought by his lawyers to have removed to a provincial correctional facility rather than a federal penitentiary.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/14/canada-guantanamo-omar-khadr-child-offender

On 19 May, four former prisoners accepted as refugees in Uruguay who had held a protest outside the US Embassy in the capital Montevideo demanding extra support and that the US gives them reparations for holding them illegally for 13 years struck a deal with Uruguayan government negotiators. The deal, which is not much of a real improvement on the original deal offered to the men, will see them receive rent for their own homes, assistance in finding jobs and learning Spanish and a small monthly stipend to cover their basic needs. Since arriving in the country at the end of last year, the six men who are all torture survivors and in need of rehabilitation, have all struggled. They were given a flat to share but wanted privacy. They were offered menial jobs, such as working as fruit pickers, even though the jobs were sometimes difficult to get to and difficult to carry out given their physical health. In addition, the men were seeking to bring their families to the country – four of the men are from Syria and their families are still in the war-torn country – but the small wages they will receive in addition to the stipend will not be sufficient to do this. As proof that the men are eager to adapt to their new surroundings and to get on with their lives, local Uruguayan media has reported that two of them will be getting married to Uruguayan women at the beginning of June.

Asim Thabit Abdullah al-Khalaqi, 47, a Yemeni prisoner held without charge or trial at Guantánamo for over 12 years and released to Kazakhstan at the end of 2014, died on 7 May. He is reported to have been in poor health and died of kidney failure. It is reported that poor medical care at Guantánamo may have contributed to his death.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/22/guantanamo-detainee-asim-thabit-abdullah-al-khalaqi-dies-kazakhstan

 

Extraordinary Rendition:

Prosecutors in Scotland investigating the use of airports in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Prestwick and Aberdeen for CIA torture flights have submitted a request to the US authorities to receive a complete and unredacted version of the Senate torture to help its inquiries.

http://rt.com/uk/259973-reprieve-cia-scottish-airport/

LGC Activities:

The LGC May Shut Guantánamo demonstration was attended by 9 people. We were joined by the family of American prisoner in Iraq Shawki Ahmed Omar. The June demo will be on Thursday 4 June: https://www.facebook.com/events/1612696089007212/

Media release: London Guantánamo Campaign congratulates former Guantánamo child prisoner on his release on bail from Canadian prison

Protesting Omar Khadr's military commission in 2010

For immediate release: Friday 8 May 2015

Activists from the London Guantánamo Campaign [1] welcome the release on bail, in Canada, of Canadian former Guantánamo child prisoner Omar Khadr [2] on Thursday 7 May, under strict conditions [3]. This is pending his appeal of his 2010 conviction for war crimes, obtained through a secret plea bargain in the widely-discredited Guantánamo military commission procedure.

As the only person since World War II to be tried as an adult for offences alleged committed as a minor before a military tribunal , the London Guantánamo Campaign has always maintained that Omar Khadr is a child soldier and should never have been subject to such proceedings, let alone held at Guantánamo Bay.

The London Guantánamo Campaign has campaigned consistently for his release since he became the first Guantánamo prisoner to be charged and brought to trial before the revised military commissions system under President Obama in 2009. Our activities for Omar Khadr have included:

·         holding the only demonstration in solidarity with his case when his military commission was ongoing in 2010,

·         speaking on a special panel about his case at Amnesty International UK in 2012 [4],

·         highlighting his plight as part of events to mark 11 years of Guantánamo Bay in early 2013,

·         and in conjunction with a number of organisations and universities in the UK and the Free Omar Khadr Now Campaign, hosting a speaking tour with his lawyer Dennis Edney QC in March 2014 [5] to raise awareness of his case beyond Canada .

Aisha Maniar, organiser from the London Guantánamo Campaign, says, “Omar Khadr is the boy who became a man at Guantánamo Bay. His case, particularly given the vulnerabilities presented by his age at the time, demonstrates some of the worst brutalities wantonly committed in the name of the so-called War on Terror. The actions of the Canadian government since 2002 also highlight the proactive role the US’s allies have played in flouting international law and committing human rights violations.

Protesting Omar Khadr's military commission in 2010

“We welcome Omar Khadr’s release and congratulate him on what is truly a historic day for justice and everyone who fights for it. The fight to clear his name in the US courts continues and we will continue to support his quest for justice. We believe that it is only a matter of time before his conviction is quashed, as in the case of other former prisoners; evidence procured through torture and conjecture cannot provide the basis for any conviction, let alone a war crimes conviction. We look forward to the day that Omar Khadr is fully vindicated.”

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The London Guantánamo Campaign was set up in 2006 and campaigns for justice for all prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, for the closure of this and other secret prisons, and an end to the practice of extraordinary rendition. http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.com     

2. For more details on Omar Khadr’s case, please visit www.freeomar.ca

3. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/05/07/the-rules-khadr-must-live-by-if-he-gets-bail-today.html

4. http://www.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/childrens-human-rights-network-blog/you-dont-truth-four-days-inside-guantanamo-omar-khadrs

5. http://londonguantanamocampaign.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/diary-of-dennis-edney-speaking-tour-12.html