Amnesty Defends 'Gulag,' Urges Guantánamo Access

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FOCUS | Amnesty Defends 'Gulag,' Urges Guantánamo Access

Thu, 02 Jun 2005 11:32:22 -0700

 

 

FOCUS | Amnesty Defends 'Gulag,' Urges Guantánamo Access

 

 

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/060205X.shtml

 

 

 

 

 

Amnesty Defends 'Gulag,' Urges Guantánamo Access

Reuters

 

Thursday 02 June 2005

 

Human rights group Amnesty defended its description of Guantánamo

prison as a " gulag " Thursday and urged the United States to allow

independent investigations of allegations of torture at its detention

centers for terrorism suspects.

 

A verbal feud between Amnesty International and Washington has

escalated since Amnesty last week compared the prison at the US naval

base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to the brutal Soviet system of forced

labor camps where millions of prisoners died.

 

President Bush dismissed as " absurd " the Amnesty report, which

also said the United States was responsible for an upsurge in global

human rights violations, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called

the description " reprehensible. "

 

" The administration's response has been that our report is absurd,

that our allegations have no basis, and our answer is very simple: if

that is so, open up these detention centers, allow us and others to

visit them, " Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Zubaida

Khan told a news conference.

 

" Transparency is the best antidote to misinformation and incorrect

facts, " said Khan, who is here to meet with Japanese officials.

 

The United States holds about 520 men at Guantánamo, where they

are denied rights accorded under international law to prisoners of war.

 

Many have been held without charge for more than three years.

 

Khan rejected a suggestion that Amnesty's use of the emotive term

" gulag " had turned the debate into one over semantics, and distracted

attention from the situation in the detention centers.

 

" What we wanted to do was to send a strong message that ... this

sort of network of detention centers that has been created as part of

this war on terrorism is actually undermining human rights in a

dramatic way which can only evoke some of the worst features of human

rights scandals of the past, " she said.

 

" I don't think people have got off the hook yet. "

 

Khan also said Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security

Council meant Tokyo should play a bigger role in the global fight for

human rights and improve its own record at home.

 

Japan has stepped up its campaign for a permanent seat as part of

an effort to boost its global clout in security affairs.

 

" Japan, by its strong bid to become a UN Security Council member,

is subjecting itself to greater international scrutiny and that

creates an imperative for change, " she said.

 

Khan urged Japan to abolish the death penalty, improve the

treatment of prisoners, revise a strict stance toward refugees - only

15 refugees were accepted last year - and do more to prevent and

protect victims of human trafficking.

 

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