Publication: Progressive Review
Red Cross Monitors Barred From Guantanamo | |
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THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW - November 19, 2007
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Red Cross Monitors Barred From Guantanamo
By William Glaberson
The New York Times
A confidential 2003 manual for operating the Guantanamo
detention center shows that military officials had a policy
of denying detainees access to independent monitors from
the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The manual said one goal was to "exploit the disorientation
and disorganization felt by a newly arrived detainee," by
denying access to the Koran and by preventing visits with
Red Cross representatives, who have a long history of
monitoring the conditions under which prisoners in inter-
national conflicts are held. The document said that even
after their initial weeks at Guantanamo, some detainees
would not be permitted to see representatives of the
International Red Cross, known as the I.C.R.C.
It was permissible, the document said, for some long-term
detainees to have "No access. No contact of any kind with
the I.C.R.C."
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Some legal experts and advocates for detainees said yester-
day that the policy might have violated international law,
which provides for such monitoring to assure humanitarian
treatment and to limit the ability of governments to hold
detainees secretly.
The document, a two-inch-thick operations manual, was first
posted on Wikileaks, a Web site that encourages posting of
leaked materials. Military officials said that the manual
appeared genuine but described outdated policies and that
all Guantanamo detainees could now see Red Cross monitors.
In response to critics' assertions that the detention camp
in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may have violated international
law, a spokesman, Lt. Col. Edward M. Bush III, said, "I am
in no position to speculate about what happened in 2003."
Simon Schorno, a spokesman for the International Committee
of the Red Cross, said the organization was aware that it
was not seeing all Guantanamo detainees from 2002, when the
detention camp was opened, to 2004. He said the policies
outlined in the manual "run counter to the manner in which
the I.C.R.C. conducts its detention visits at Guantanamo
Bay and around the world."
He added that Red Cross officials worked with American
officials "to resolve this issue confidentially, since
gaining access to all detainees in full accordance with
its standard practice was paramount."
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The Red Cross has been critical of Guantánamo, saying
publicly in 2003 that keeping detainees indefinitely with-
out allowing them to know their fate was unacceptable and,
in confidential reports, that the physical and psychological
treatment of detainees amounted to torture.
The manual is a detailed directive of standard operating
procedures at Guantánamo intended for use by the hundreds
of people involved in running the detention camp. It
provides one of the most complete portraits of the rules
of the camp in its early days, when it was a largely closed
place where detainees were not publicly identified.
In some instances, the manual echoed the arguments then
being advanced by Washington officials as they fended off
criticism of Guantánamo. The manual described point-by-
point instructions for many camp procedures, including
feeding and restraining detainees, and forced extraction
of inmates from their cells by military troops. It said a
major goal was to foster detainees' dependence on their
interrogators, in part by isolating them. In a section
labeled "psychological deterrence," the manual said
military working dogs should be walked in the camp "to
demonstrate physical presence to detainees."
The spokesman, Colonel Bush, said yesterday that dogs were
no longer used at the detention camp.
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Some international law experts said yesterday that they
were startled that military officials had put in writing
a policy of denying the Red Cross access to prisoners.
"The world recognizes that the I.C.R.C. should get access"
to prison camps, said Richard J. Wilson, a law professor
at American University who was until recently a lawyer for
a Guantánamo detainee.
Deborah N. Pearlstein, a visiting scholar at the Woodrow
Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at
Princeton University, said international principles were
aimed at preventing governments from "disappearing"
opponents. "I.C.R.C. access and the obligation to record
and account for detainees is very clear under international
law," Ms. Pearlstein said.
The military spokesman, Colonel Bush, said: "All I can
tell you is what we do today. And the absolute policy now,
today, is that the I.C.R.C. is granted access to every-
thing."
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