A case study in U.S. hypocrisy
Cuba, human rights and Guantanamo
By Leslie Feinberg
It is cruelly ironic that the warlords in
Washington are cranking up charges against Cuba about
conditions for prisoners. Because on one small chunk of the
island, illegally and imperiously occupied by the Pentagon
against the will of the Cuban people since 1903, the United
States operates a hell hole for its captives.
An estimated 664 people from 42 countries, including
Afghanistan and Pales tine, have been hooded, manacled and
transported to Guantanamo since the United States started its
war against Afghanistan.
Some of those prisoners are as young as 13.
Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Barry Johnson refused to give
the boys' names, nationalities or ages. But take his word for
it that conditions are top-notch: apartments, video games, math
lessons and psychotherapy. "I'm not sure where else in the
world--given their status as enemy combatants--they would get
this type of setup, an environment designed to facilitate their
development." (Charlotte Observer, April 27)
But the reality of conditions trickles out. A U.S. military
spokesperson recently stated that the interned children are
being interrogated because they "have potential to provide
important information." (counterpunch.org, April 24)
On April 22, ABC quoted the commander of Camp Delta
confirming that child prisoners are interrogated. Journalist
Matt Biven writes: "What kind of interrogations? That's secret.
But sleep deprivation and beatings are two common 'torture
lite' methods used at the camp." (The MoscowTimes.com, April
28)
Last September, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien
announced he was trying to obtain consular access to a
15-year-old Canadian-born youth reportedly captured on July 27,
2002, after being seriously wounded. But U.S. officials have
barred any access by Canadian officials to the boy, now 16,
according to the April 28 Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Amnesty International points out that the U.S. government is
breaching the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the
Child: "Every child deprived of his or her liberty shall have
the right to prompt access to legal and other appropriate
assistance."The internationally accepted definition of a child
is anyone under the age of 18.
The United States has never ratified that treaty.
Children are not children?
Utilizing Orwellian logic, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
admits children are imprisoned at Guantanamo but deems them
"very, very dangerous" and therefore "not children."
That's the official position: "Teenagers younger than 16
being held at Guan tanamo Bay are 'not children' and pose a
lethal threat that justifies detention, U.S. military chiefs
insisted yesterday." (The Guardian, April 26)
This verbal sleight of hand is designed to distract from the
fact that not one single person of any age being held in
captivity at Guantanamo has been charged with any crime
whatsoever. They are all officially "suspects."
Camp Delta is a legal limbo enclosed by 17.4 miles of barbed
wire fence four layers deep with 16 watchtowers. An estimated
$42 million of U.S. taxpayers' dollars have already been sunk
into constructing this concentration camp, and it's not
finished yet.
Captors do not call their captives prisoners of war. In a
linguistic somersault, the Pentagon says they are "unlawful
enemy combatants" and therefore can't seek the shelter of
Geneva Conventions or other international humanitarian law.
They can't petition international courts for relief from
illegal captivity. U.S. courts have ruled they have no
jurisdiction. Detainees are not allowed to see families or
lawyers. They are being held indefinitely. Journalists are not
allowed near them.
Prisoners are caged in cells about six by six feet, enclosed
in heavy-gauge wire mesh, with a sleep shelf and a hole in the
ground for a toilet. They get only two showers and two
15-minute exercise periods a week.
As many as 25 suicide attempts have been officially
reported--more than half in the last four months, according to
the April 17 Guardian Unlimited. For a predominately Muslim
population, this is staggeringly high and confirms fears about
torture techniques.
But Lt. Col. Johnson, in language taken straight out of a
Nazi propaganda handbook, says these abysmal conditions are
designed to "facilitate the development" of the children under
his control.
Reprinted from the May 8, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
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