BBC News, June 24, 2009
Former detainee: ‘They put medicine in our drink to prevent us sleeping’
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By Ian Pannell
BBC News, Kabul |
Allegations of abuse and neglect at a US detention facility in Afghanistan have been uncovered by the BBC.
Former detainees have alleged they were beaten, deprived of sleep and threatened with dogs at the Bagram military base.
The BBC interviewed 27 former inmates of Bagram around the country over a period of two months.
The Pentagon has denied the charges and insisted that all inmates in the facility are treated humanely.
All the men were asked the same questions and they were all interviewed in isolation.
Ill-treatment
They were held at times between 2002 and 2008 and they were all accused of belonging to or helping al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
None were charged with any offence or put on trial; some even received apologies when they were released.
Just two of the detainees said they had been treated well.
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 They put a pistol or a gun to your head and threatened you with death.  Former Bagram detainee
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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 forced to remove clothes in front of female soldiers.
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.
“They poured cold water on you in winter and hot water in summer. They used dogs against us. They put a pistol or a gun to your head and threatened you with death,” he said.
“They put some kind of medicine in the juice or water to make you sleepless and then they would interrogate you.”
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BAGRAM AIR BASE
Base built by the Soviet military in the 1980s
Around 600 people are held
Prisoners are classified as “unlawful enemy combatants’
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The findings were shown to the Pentagon.
Lt Col Mark Wright, a spokesman for the US Secretary of Defence, insisted that conditions at Bagram “meet international standards for care and custody”.
Col Wright said the US defence department has a policy of treating detainees humanely.
“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,” he said.
‘Legal black hole’
Bagram has held thousands of people over the last eight years and a new detention centre is currently under construction at the camp.
Some of the inmates are forcibly taken there from abroad, especially Pakistanis and at least two Britons.
Bagram detainees do not have the status of those at Guantanamo Bay
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Since coming to office US President Barack Obama has banned the use of torture and ordered a review of policy on detainees, which is expected to report next month.
But unlike its detainees at the US naval facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, the prisoners at Bagram have no access to lawyers and they cannot challenge their detention.
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.
She is pursuing legal action that, if successful. would grant detainees at Bagram the same rights as those still being held at Guantanamo Bay.
But the Obama administration is trying to block the move.
Last year, the US Supreme Court ruled that detainees at Guantanamo should be given legal rights.
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.
Peace and Justice Post 
Uzbekistan: Imprisoned Activists’ Health in Danger
December 18, 2008These activists should never have been imprisoned in the first place. That several of them are now suffering severe health problems as a result is an outrage, and only underscores the urgency of securing their immediate and unconditional release.
A UN review set for today of Uzbekistan’s human rights practices is a crucial opportunity to highlight concern about its abysmal human rights record and press for immediate steps to end abuses, Human Rights Watch said today.
Uzbekistan is coming up for scrutiny before the United Nations’ global rights body, the Human Rights Council, under its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) procedure in Geneva.
Of urgent concern is the plight of imprisoned human rights defenders – currently numbering at least 11 – and other independent political and civic activists whom the Uzbek government has detained on politically motivated grounds. According to recent reports received by Human Rights Watch, a number of these activists are suffering severe health problems as a result of poor conditions and ill-treatment in Uzbekistan’s notoriously abusive prison system.
“These activists should never have been imprisoned in the first place,” said Igor Vorontsov, Uzbekistan researcher at Human Rights Watch. “That several of them are now suffering severe health problems as a result is an outrage, and only underscores the urgency of securing their immediate and unconditional release.”
A new list of imprisoned human rights defenders and activists in Uzbekistan published by Human Rights Watch today gives up-to-date case summaries, detailing the circumstances of each individual’s wrongful detention and highlighting details of the severe health problems faced by a number of them. Among those whose health condition demands immediate attention are Yusuf Jumaev, Alisher Karamatov, Jamshid Karimov, Norboi Kholjigitov, Rasul Khudainasarov, and Sanjar Umarov. In some of these cases, authorities have not only failed to provide adequate medical care, but have actively undermined their health through torture, ill-treatment and the use of psychotropic drugs.
Human Rights Watch urged UN member states taking part in the Uzbekistan review to use the opportunity to send a strong, unequivocal message to Tashkent about the unacceptable state of human rights in the country and about the necessity of concrete and meaningful rights improvements.
Key areas of concern highlighted by Human Rights Watch in its submission to the UPR included the 2005 massacre by government forces in Andijan, in which hundreds were killed and for which the Uzbek government continues to deny justice; the ongoing persecution of human rights defenders and repression of independent civil society activism; torture and ill-treatment in the criminal justice system, which Uzbek authorities have failed to take effective action to address; repression of media freedoms, and; religious persecution targeting in particular Muslims who practice their faith outside state controls or who belong to unregistered religious organizations.
Human Rights Watch also called on the Uzbek government to engage positively and effectively in the human rights review process and to take seriously all recommendations made.
“Improving the dismal human rights situation in Uzbekistan will take more than a rhetorical commitment or yet another seminar,” said Vorontsov. “The Uzbek government should demonstrate real political will by immediately releasing wrongfully detained human rights activists and issuing invitations to all UN rights monitors who have requested access.”
Specific recommendations that Human Rights Watch urged the UN Human Rights Council to address to the Uzbek government included the following:
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Tags:human rights activists, Human Rights Watch, Igor Vorontsov, ill-treatment, imprisonment, the Andijan massacre, Uzbekistan
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