The other Gitmo – In Bagrman Prison US beats, tortures and detains prisoners illegally
Posted by Alexander Higgins - November 16, 2009 at 7:41 am - Permalink - Source via Alexander Higgins Blog
Loading ...Many Americans are aware of the illegal detention and torture of suspected terrorist in Guantanamo bay in Cuba. However, few are aware of Guantanamo’s evil twin Bagram prison in Afghanistan. If President Obama is truly concerned with cleaning up the stain Bush left on America’s image to the the rest of the world, then he would also clean up Bagram prison in Afghanistan.
Ex-detainees allege Bagram abuse
Clara Gutteridge, an investigator of secret prisons and renditions from the human rights organization, Reprieve, said Bagram is seen as “Guantanamo’s lesser-known evil twin“.
“All this talk about transparency, and the US government still won’t release a simple list of names of prisoners who are in Bagram, None of them have had access to a lawyer … and that just seems very unfair. We at Reprieve see this as the next big fight after Guantanamo Bay.
Guantanamo’s lesser-known evil twin
Bagram Air Field is the largest US military hub in Afghanistan and is home to about 24,000 military personnel and civilian contractors.
The US Government position on Afghan prisoners is that have less rights than any other prison according to Clara. Bagman Air Field is the largest US military installation in Afghanistan and houses over 24,000 military personnel and contractors. The US has just recently spent $60 billion to build a new prison wing after coming under fire for allegations of crimes against humanity in the prison.
The US recently allowed journalist access the prison to show that conditions have changed but refused to allow journalists access to the prisoners to discuss the conditions or their treatment with the media.
“We were not shown the detainees”, James Bays says. “Human-rights lawyers say that, while the environment for the prisoners may be changing, their legal situation is not … not having been charged. Nor has any civilian lawyer ever been allowed inside.”
The new $60 billion investment is supposed to be part of a new era of openness and transparency by the Obama administration but according to Omar Dighayes, a former detainee at Bagram and Guantanamo Bay, said the Bagram prison resembled a concentration camp.
Bagman Detainees Beaten and Tortured by the US
“People were beaten, dragged, tortured in it. There were high places where guards stood with guns. It was a hard, difficult place,” said Dighayes.
General Mark Martins, who runs detention operations at the airbase, said the US military was improving its treatment of detainees and had learnt many lessons since occupying the country in 2001.
But Dighayes said he doubts the newly refurbished Bagram prison will improve conditions for its detainees, one of which includes his brother-in-law, whom Dighayes says was recently “badly beaten” inside Bagram, since the conditions have been improved. “I don’t think it’s the facilities which make the difference, it’s the treatment of people inside.
The Legacy of beatings and torture by the US in Bagram
In July of 2009 the Huffington post reported that the BBC broke a story of beating and torture by the US government of prisoners at Bagram after a large number of former detainees made accusations of beatings and torture.
The BBC interviewed, in isolation, 27 former detainees from different areas of Afghanistan who had been detained during different times between 2002 and 2008. All of the detainees were accused of belonging to or helping al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
None was charged with any offence or put on trial – some even received apologies when they were released.
Many allegations of ill-treatment appear repeatedly in the interviews: physical abuse, the use of stress positions, excessive heat or cold, unbearably loud noise, being attacked by dogs, and being forced to take drugged medicine.
In four cases detainees were threatened with death at gunpoint.
“They did things that you would not do against animals let alone to humans,” said one inmate known as Dr Khandan.
The findings were shown to the Pentagon. Lt Col Mark Wright, a spokesman for the US Secretary of Defense said “There have been well-documented instances where that policy was not followed, and service members have been held accountable for their actions in those cases”.
Yet to this day the beatings and torture ad Bagram continue.
The inmates at Bagram are being kept in “a legal black-hole, without access to lawyers or courts”, according to Tina Foster, executive director of the International Justice Network, a legal support group representing four detainees.
Speaking on the presidential campaign trail, Barack Obama applauded the ruling: “The court’s decision is a rejection of the Bush administration’s attempt to create a legal black hole at Guantanamo.
“This is an important step toward re-establishing our credibility as a nation committed to the rule of law, and rejecting a false choice between fighting terrorism and respecting habeas corpus.”
Ms Foster accuses the new administration of abandoning that position and “using the same arguments as the Bush White House”.
In its legal submissions, the US justice department argues that because Afghanistan is an active combat zone it is not possible to conduct rigorous inquiries into individual cases and that it would divert precious military resources at a crucial time.
They also argue that granting legal rights to detainees could harm Mr Obama’s “ability to succeed in armed conflict and to protect United States’ forces” by limiting his powers to conduct military operations.
A US federal appeals court judge is expected to rule soon.
These revelations come at a time when Mr Obama is trying to re-set Washington’s relationship with the Muslim world and trying harder than ever to win the war in Afghanistan.
It is a controversy that threatens to damage the image of the new administration in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
