America admits suspects died in interrogations By Andrew Gumbel in Los
Angeles 07 March 2003
American military officials acknowledged yesterday that two prisoners
captured in Afghanistan in December had been killed while under
interrogation at Bagram air base north of Kabul � reviving concerns that
the US is resorting to torture in its treatment of Taliban fighters and
suspected al-Qa'ida operatives.
A spokesman for the air base confirmed that the official cause of death
of the two men was "homicide", contradicting earlier accounts
that one had died of a heart attack and the other from a pulmonary
embolism.
The men's death certificates, made public earlier this week, showed that
one captive, known only as Dilawar, 22, from the Khost region, died from
"blunt force injuries to lower extremities complicating coronary
artery disease" while another captive, Mullah Habibullah, 30,
suffered from blood clot in the lung that was exacerbated by a
"blunt force injury". US officials previously admitted using
"stress and duress" on prisoners including sleep deprivation,
denial of medication for battle injuries, forcing them to stand or kneel
for hours on end with hoods on, subjecting them to loud noises and sudden
flashes of light and engaging in culturally humiliating practices such as
having them kicked by female officers.
While the US claims this still constitutes "humane" treatment,
human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights
Watch have denounced it as torture as defined by international treaty.
The US has also come under heavy criticism for its reported policy of
handing suspects over to countries such as Jordan, Egypt or Morocco,
where torture techniques are an established part of the security
apparatus. Legally, Human Rights Watch says, there is no distinction
between using torture directly and subcontracting it out.
Some American politicians have argued that torture could be justified in
this case if it helped prevent terror attacks on US citizens. Jonathan
Turley, a prominent law professor at George Washington University,
countered that embracing torture would be "suicide for a nation once
viewed as the very embodiment of human rights".
Torture is part of a long list of concerns about the Bush
administration's respect for international law, after the extrajudicial
killing of al-Qa'ida suspects by an unmanned drone in Yemen and the the
indefinite detention of "enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, a number of whom have committed or attempted to commit suicide.
President Bush appeared to encourage extra-judicial solutions in his
State of the Union address in January when he talked of al-Qa'ida members
being arrested or meeting "a different fate". "Let's put
it this way," he said in a tone that appalled many, "they are
no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and
allies."
Link:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=384604
