VIENNA, Nov 15: UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak urged the United States on Tuesday to allow unrestricted inspection of the military-run prison at Guantanamo Bay, noting that China had agreed to a similar investigation of its jails.
“The situation is very clear: if the United States does not accept an unconditional inspection, we will not go,” Nowak told AFP.
The United Nations intends to send inspectors to the base on December 6 to investigate allegations of torture at the prison and wants them to have free access to detainees, something Washington has so far refused to grant.
Nowak and his team are due to draw up a report by the end of December on the conditions under which detainees are being held at the camp and will present their findings to the UN Commissioner for Human Rights in March.
“The report will be written whatever happens,” Nowak insisted. “We are in a position to assess the situation (in Guantanamo Bay) on the basis of eyewitness accounts, but obviously it would be preferable for all concerned if we could carry out a proper first-hand inspection.”
However, he warned: “For us to go to Guantanamo Bay without our conditions having been met would set a negative precedent for all other countries.”
Nowak, who has called for a conclusive answer by midnight on Thursday, said: “A refusal would reinforce the suspicion that there are still a lot of things at Guantanamo Bay which should not be seen.”
Serious allegations of human rights abuses have been made concerning the conditions under which the 520 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are being held without trial, and a number have gone on hunger strike.
He added that the UN team had made ‘concessions’ by limiting the inspection to a single day instead of three days and by agreeing to send three investigators instead of five. “We have also agreed to restrict the inspection to Gunatanamo Bay and not to extend it to other American prisons in the world,” he added.
The United States has been accused of running secret prisons in several countries, including in Europe, as well as aboard ships sailing international waters.
A refusal by Washington to allow access to Guantanamo Bay would have ‘the very worst effect’, Nowak said, coming as it would at a time when China has for the first time agreed to allow inspectors access to its prisons without laying down any preconditions.
“The comparison is not very favourable for the United States, and that is why I am of the opinion that the Pentagon will end up by complying,” Nowak added, saying he believed ‘the State Department (to be) favourable to an inspection’.
Since taking up his post in December last year, Nowak has carried out inspections in Georgia, Mongolia and Nepal, but he sets particular store by investigating prisons in the United States as ‘no state has gone as far in putting torture and inhuman treatment in perspective.
“In addition, the United States has a particular responsibility as it continues to represent a model for many countries, particularly in Latin America, Africa, Asia and eastern Europe,” he added.
“Those countries could justify illegal practices with regard to international law by citing the example of the United States.”
Last Thursday, the US Senate voted discretionary powers that would prevent terrorist suspects held at Guantanamo Bay from challenging their detention in US courts, which the US Supreme Court allowed last year.
“While the United States has the right to protect itself against future attacks, the fight against terrorism cannot go as far as the violation of the absolute restriction on torture and inhuman treatment,” Nowak added.
“The message must be clear: the fundamental rights — democracy, human rights, the rule of law — cannot be called into question.”—AFP