The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has found prisoner abuse that amounts to ”a form of torture” at a United States military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, The New York Times said on Tuesday, citing a confidential report.
Based on a visit to the detention centre in June, an ICRC team, which included humanitarian workers and experienced medical personel, discovered a system devised to break the will of prisoners through ”humiliating acts, solitary confinement, temperature extremes, use of forced positions”.
”The construction of such a system, whose stated purpose is the production of intelligence, cannot be considered other than an intentional system of cruel, unusual and degrading treatment and a form of torture,” the report said.
Sent to the US government in July, the report — a detailed memorandum of which was obtained recently by The New York Times — said the prisoners were also exposed to loud and persistent noise and music and to prolonged cold. It also said that detainees were subjected to ”some beatings,” the daily added.
The Geneva-based agency refused to confirm or deny the article.
”The ICRC has been regularly visiting the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay since early 2002 for the purpose of monitoring that persons held there are treated in accordance with the applicable international laws and standards,” it said, responding to the story in The New York Times.
The visits also enable prisoners and their families to pass messages to each other, the agency explained in a statement.
”The contents of the ICRC’s representations and reports are confidential and for the exclusive attention of the relevant detaining authorities,” it said.
”The organisation will not publicly confirm or deny whether the quotations in the article… reflect findings reported by the ICRC to the US authorities.”
The New York Times said the report did not mention how many of the 550 detainees being held at Guantanamo were subjected to maltreatment. The US has used the military facility to hold people detained around the world in its ”war on terror” indefinitely and without trial.
The ICRC team also found that physicians and medical personnel at the Guantanamo prison provided information about the prisoners’ mental health and vulnerabilities to interrogators, a practice a human rights expert told the daily was in violation of international ethical standards.
The newspaper said a statement from the Pentagon said ”the allegation that detainee medical files were used to harm detainees is false”.
”The US operates a safe, humane and professional detention operation at Guantanamo that is providing valuable information in the war on terrorism,” the Pentagon statement said.
Personnel assigned to Guantanamo, the Pentagon added, ”go through extensive professional and sensitivity training to ensure they understand the procedures for protecting the rights and dignity of detainees”.
Many of the detainees at Guantanamo have been there for almost three years without any access to lawyers.
Only four have been charged, as the US government resists a legal onslaught over its handling of al-Qaeda and Taliban detainees, most of whom it believes fall outside the protection of the Geneva Conventions. – Sapa-AFP