Briton freed from Guantanamo prison tells European
rights body of U.S. abuse
03:57 PM EST Dec 20

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/041217/w121766.html

PARIS (AP) - A Briton released from the U.S. prison
camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, told Europe's top human
rights body Friday he was beaten, shackled, kept in a
cramped cage and fed rotten food as part of
"systematic abuse" in custody.

Jamal al-Harith's testimony before a Council of Europe
panel came as part of an inquiry by the body into
human rights abuses at the U.S. prison camp to be made
public in a report due out early next year.

Reading from a 10-page statement, al-Harith described
his two-year detention at Guantanamo Bay as a period
of continual mistreatment that ranged from humiliation
and 15-hour interrogations to physical abuse he said
left scars.

At one point, al-Harith said he refused to take an
unidentified injection and was chained up and attacked
by five men wearing helmets, body armour and shields.

"They jumped on my legs and back and they kicked and
punched me," said the 37-year-old website designer and
father of three from Manchester, England.

"Then I was put in isolation for a month."

Al-Harith said he was kept mostly in a wire cage and
given food marked "10 to 12 years beyond their usable
date," as well as "black and rotten" fruit. Sometimes,
unmuzzled dogs were brought to the cage and encouraged
to bark, he said.

Detained in Afghanistan in October 2001, al-Harith
maintains he had travelled to the region to attend a
religious retreat in Pakistan.

He and three other Britons were released in March and
have filed a lawsuit in a U.S. court seeking $10
million each in damages. Never charged, they maintain
they were innocents caught up in the U.S. war on
terrorism. They were denied access to lawyers, as are
most prisoners in Guantanamo.

When al-Harith and the others filed their lawsuits in
October, the Pentagon denied the abuse allegations and
said the men were properly held in Guantanamo after
being captured in Afghanistan and having fought for
al-Qaida.

"The U.S. policy is to treat all detainees and to
conduct interrogations, wherever they may occur, is in
a manner consistent with all U.S. legal obligations,"
Maj. Michael Shavers, a Pentagon spokesman, said at
the time.

Robert Lizar, al-Harith's lawyer, urged the panel to
use strong language in its report and to condemn U.S.
behaviour at Guantanamo that he called "totally
shocking and unacceptable from international norms."

"The actions are closer to those of kidnappers and
bandits, than to those of a state with a strong
tradition of liberty and due process," Lizar said.

Al-Harith said during long interrogations, he was
given no choice but to urinate on the floor and
repeatedly threatened or asked to confess to crimes he
had not committed in exchange for a payoff.

Interrogators threatened to seize his family's home,
unless he admitted to having gone to Pakistan to buy
drugs or to become involved with terrorism, al-Harith
said.

"On another occasion, the interrogators promised me
money, a car, a house, a job if I admitted those
things," he said.

"I refused."

During questioning, al-Harith said he was placed in
shackles that prevented him from standing upright and
cut into his flesh, leaving scars on his wrists and
ankles.

Similar abuses are detailed in a memo obtained
exclusively by The Associated Press this month that
suggests the U.S. Defence Department has done nothing
about FBI complaints of "highly aggressive"
interrogations reported as early as 2002. The memo
quotes a U.S. marine telling an FBI observer some
interrogations led to prisoners "curling into a fetal
position on the floor and crying in pain."

Kevin McNamara, who presided over Friday's hearing for
the council, said the global fight against terrorism
should not be used as an excuse to violate basic human
rights, the right to a fair trial and the rule of law.

"Hundreds of what must be presumed to be innocent
people remain in indeterminate detention in Guantanamo
Bay," he said.

"By all accounts, the abuse continues."

McNamara said the council plans to publish its report
on the subject in the early months of 2005.

© The Canadian Press, 2004
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

More on American War Crimes at:
http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Park/6443/American/






___________________________________________________________
ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun!
http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com