- Title: USA: RIGHTS GROUP CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION INTO ALLEGED ABUSE AT GUANTANAMO BAY.
- Date: 5th August 2004
- Summary: (W6) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, USA (AUGUST 4, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. PRESIDENT OF THE CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS, MICHAEL RATNER SPEAKING AT PRESS CONFERENCE 2. SOUNDBITE (English) RATNER SAYING: "With regard to this report, I actually interviewed these three young men, right after they were freed in the U.K., I went in and saw them, and I have to tell them that the idea that these young men where kept in prison in this place without any representation and in my view, coerced confessions, I find really amazing." 3. GUANTANAMO REPORT COVER 4. SOUNDBITE (English) RATNER SAYING: "When you read it, it's a nightmare, it's Kafkaesque, it's a situation where there was no exit for these men, they were innocent young men, as far from being terrorists as my own children, and yet they were assumed to be guilty and were coerced into giving false confessions that they knew Osama Bin Laden. It was done in a variety of ways. It was done in part by shackling them to the floor, twelve hours at a time, they were not allowed to get up to urinate, by loud noises, sleep deprivation, beatings by a squad called the emergency. Eventually to get their conditions better, they said 'oh yeah we were fighters in Afghanistan, yes we knew Osama, yes that is us in the video, in fact it is all false so what this report does it that it documents, like no other report has to date, on almost a daily basis what happened to them. It is a hundred pages long, its in their own words and it really tells you what happened to them in Guantanamo." 5. DRAWINGS FROM THE REPORT DEPICTING THE ALLEGED ABUSE 6. SOUNDBITE (English) RATNER SAYING: "This was a policy at the highest levels of the U.S and what we are calling for at this center is that their is a full investigation going forward, up the whole chain of command, all the way up to the generals he defense Department and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. We think what has happened here is authorized from the top. It is illegal, it violates the U.S. constitution and International law and puts the U.S, on the side of wrong, not on the side of right." 2.24 VARIOUS LOCATIONS, GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA (FILE) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 7. LV/GV: EXTERIORS OF GUANTANAMO BAY DETENTION CENTER (5 SHOTS) 2.50 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 20th August 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- City:
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA6CJTRV6K5UNI30HDKXTWR4DGB
- Story Text: Former Guatanamo Bay detainees describe prison
abuse, as New York Rights group calls for investigations
into allegations.
Three Britons released from Guantanamo Bay published
a dossier in the United States on Wednesday (August 4)
alleging systematic abuse including being interrogated at
gunpoint after arrest and photographed naked at the prison.
The claims by the "Tipton Three", all young Muslims
from the central English town of Tipton who were held in
Afghanistan in 2002, are the latest in a litany of abuse
claims about Guantanamo, particularly from former British
detainees.
Rights groups say tactics against terrorism suspects
there may have been similar to those at Abu Ghraib jail
near Baghdad where U.S. soldiers abused and sexually
humiliated Iraqis.
Speaking at the Center for Constitutional Rights in New
York, center president Michael Ratner called for an independent
commiss
ion to be set up to investigate the
allegations.
Said Ratner: "With regard to this report, I actually
interviewed these three young men, right after they were
freed in the U.K. I went in and saw them, and I have to
tell them that the idea that these young men where kept in
prison in this place without any representation and in my
view, coerced confessions, I find really amazing."
The U.S. military denies abuse at Guantanamo.
London has asked Washington to investigate but says the
Britons made no allegations of abuse during diplomats'
visits.
The 115-page dossier to be released in New York, notes
one of the three -- among five Britons freed from
Guantanamo in March -- was quizzed for three hours in
Afghanistan under threat of being shot.
Ratner said: "When you read it, it's a nightmare, it's
Kafkaesque, it's a situation where there was no exit for
these men, they were innocent young men, as far from being
terrorists as my own children, and yet they were assumed to
be guilty and were coerced into giving false confessions
that they knew Osama Bin Laden. It was done in a variety
of ways. It was done in part by shackling them to the
floor, twelve hours at a time, they were not allowed to get
up to urinate, by loud noises, sleep deprivation, beatings
by a squad called the emergency. Eventually to get their
conditions better, they said 'oh yeah we were fighters in
Afghanistan, yes we knew Osama, yes that is us in the
video, in fact it is all false so what this report does it
that it documents, like no other report has to date, on
almost a daily basis what happened to them. It is a hundred
pages long, its in their own words and it really tells you
what happened to them in Guantanamo."
At the base, Ahmed and the other two, Shafiq Rasul and
Asif Iqbal, say they were repeatedly kicked and beaten,
shackled in painful positions, subjected to sleep
deprivation and anal searches, and photographed naked.
All three said they gave in and made false confessions
of links to al Qaeda and terrorism activities.
In their report, they said they were not sexually
molested at Guantanamo but knew others who were.
Their claims are published less than 24 hours after
lawyers for another British former detainee urged
Washington to hand over videos they say show U.S. captors
assaulting Muslim prisoners at the camp.
Ratner says the Center for Constitutional Rights is
actively pursuing the claims of the report, taking it to
the highest level.
"This was a policy at the highest levels of the U.S and
what we are calling for at this center is that their is a
full investigation going forward, up the whole chain of
command, all the way up to the generals he defense
Department and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. We think
what has happened here is authorized from the top. It is
illegal, it violates the U.S constitution and
International law and puts the U.S, on the side of wrong,
not on the side of right," he said.
Some 600 inmates are being held at Guantanamo, on the
southeastern tip of Cuba, suspected of fighting with the
Taliban in Afghanistan or supporting al Qaeda radicals.
Hundreds of Guantanamo detainees have tried to commit
suicide and at least 100 were noticeably mentally ill,
according to the report of the men's testimony.
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