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Lets create a Camp X-Ray in Edinburgh City Centre.

William Thomas Allan | 14.03.2004 19:27

People can’t see what happens in Guantanamo bay. So lets create a camp x-ray in Edinburgh city centre.

guantanamo prisoners
guantanamo prisoners



Many, I’m sure, will have been horrified by the stories of the Britons who have returned from Guantanamo Bay this week. These men, who were kept beyond the reach of friends, family or justice for two years have now been released without charge.

For those of you who have not read the reports of the appalling treatment they received from their captors, here are some of the extracts from the interviews by David Rose of the Observer newspaper;

“After more than 200 interrogation sessions each, with the CIA, FBI, Defence Intelligence Agency, MI5 and MI6, America has been forced to admit its claims that the three were terrorists who supported al-Qaeda had no foundation.”

“That their first interrogations by British investigators - from both MI5 and the SAS - took place in December 2001 and January 2002 when they were still being held at a detention camp in Afghanistan. Guns were held to their heads during their questioning in Afghanistan by American soldiers, and physical abuse and beatings were rife. At this point, after weeks of near starvation as prisoners of the Northern Alliance, all three men were close to death.”

“Before boarding a military aircraft they were dressed in earmuffs, goggles and surgical masks. Inside, they were chained to the floor with no backrests, and even when they requested the toilet, they were not released from their chains. 'Basically people wet their pants. You were pissing all over your legs.'”

“The cells were about the size of a king-size mattress, made of mesh and metal, exposed to the relentless tropical heat, with no air conditioning. They contained a hole in the floor for a toilet, a tap producing yellow water which was so low they had to kneel to use it, and a narrow metal cot. Apart from interrogation, the only break in this confined monotony were showers and 20 minutes' exercise, two or three times a week.”

“The horror of their story needs no embellishment. One day, perhaps, there will be an inquiry into Guantanamo. Until then, some of their allegations - which, it can be assumed, America is likely to deny - cannot be corroborated. However, many of the experiences they describe, including gunpoint interrogations in Afghanistan and random brutality both there and in Guantanamo, have been related in identical terms by other freed detainees. Last October I spent four days at Guantanamo. Much of what the three men say about the regime and the camp's physical conditions I either saw or heard from US officials.”

Indeed, Colin Powell has already denied the allegations of mistreatment, saying Americans "don't abuse people who are in our care".

If any doubts about the illegitimacy of holding these prisoners, so called “illegal combatants”, still remained, these stories dispel it. Confessions and convictions in the camp are being extracted using torture, solitary confinement and sensory deprivation to elicit confessions, with privileges and improved conditions for information on other inmates. Such an approach cannot fail but to create false convictions. But even these men fought for the Taliban, fought for Al-Quaida, this cannot be excused. WE ARE MEANT TO BE THE DEMOCRACIES. We should expect higher standards of our representatives. Do we believe in the rule of law? Do we believe in human rights? If not, then we are nothing but the rich countries.

Camp X-ray seems beyond the reach of justice. These Britons have been released because their case would have come before the US Supreme Court next month – and a ruling from the Court that the Camp was unlawful would have been disastrous for the US administration. But for the majority, especially non-western inmates, there is no hope. They are in limbo. Political pressure is required.

We would like to hold a symbolic vigil on Sundays on Princess Street. The Women in Black movement that has a silent vigil every Saturday estimates that some 5,000 people see them every hour. We could also get some press coverage. The idea would be to have a Guantanamo cell – a cage, and volunteers to be inmates – dressed in the orange jumpsuits, manacled, hooded. The Edinburgh Amnesty Group apparently have a cage that may be suitable. People could volunteer for an hour. Their replacement would get dressed somewhere private nearby, and led to the cage, so that the image of people clambering into jumpsuits in the street did not detract from the anonymity, the dehumanisation, which these suits are meant to enforce.

If you are interested in getting involved in this, please contact Tom & Sue Allan  W_T_Allan@yahoo.com

William Thomas Allan
- e-mail: w_t_allan@yahoo.com

Comments

Hide the following 8 comments

it has been done....

14.03.2004 23:53

Check out details of a recreation of Camp Xray which happened last October in Manchester.

 http://www.uhc-collective.org.uk/exhibitions/cross_the_line/jairedman.htm

berti


How ?

15.03.2004 08:33

How do you know what the returned prisoner said was true ?

Sam


re: how?

15.03.2004 17:04

How do you know what all the ex-prisoners who have been released have said is true? Maybe it's just a coincidence or maybe they've telepathically communicated with each other to share their stories of treatment that breaks the Geneva Convention?!! It's not the only place and time that the US has broken international agreements that they are party to, denied it, and shouted/bombed others for doing the self-same thing.

Why don't you want to believe it, because that's what your comment is based on?

How do you know Colin Powell's telling the truth either?
After all, I've not been to China, so I reckon it doesn't exist etc etc blah blah world is flat...

m


"Guantanamo was fun"

15.03.2004 20:50

Is it all true, or could there be some bullshit / exaggeration in there?

I've seen reports that quote two young Afghans as saying they "loved it" in Camp X-ray and were sad to leave - the food was great, they learnt to read and were treated very well.

So if I have to believe anything a released Guantanamo inmate says, it must be like that for everyone, surely?

I think the truth is somewhere between the Taliban propaganda and the US propaganda, personally.

Rick


Fun

15.03.2004 21:11

I assume the reference to "fun" is citing the report about the children they imprisoned in Guantanamo, aged 13 and 15.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3450687.stm

No doubt the few children held there were well treated, well fed and allowed to play: I imagine that even US soldiers would be astonished and embarrassed to find themselves order to imprison children in a concentration camp.

Do you suppose the adults were treated the same way? Have you read the reports from the men who were released yet? Would you find it "fun" to be manacled, beaten, sexually abused, pissed on, psychologically tortured, deprived of sleep, etc?

 http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=500339
 http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/story.jsp?story=500723
 http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/story.jsp?story=501031

Were the 28 recorded suicide attempts in 2003 a result of excessive "fun"?

John


Erm...

15.03.2004 21:40

John, I made the point that it obviously wasn't like that for everyone - and perhaps it wasn't really like that for the boys at all. I don't believe everything I read in the papers, mate.

Suicide attempts seem to be quite popular within certain sections of the Islamic community, although I believe the term 'martyrdom' is used in preference.

Again, I'd prefer to have some reliable information before I get caught up in a propaganda war between Christian nazis and Islamic nazis - I can't see any reason to favour one brand of fascism over another.

Rick


Sick B*stad!

16.03.2004 03:38

You are a sick b*stard Rick. Next you'll be telling us not all the people who got gased at Auschwitz found it unpleasant!

not rick


Holocaust denial

16.03.2004 20:01

Getting a little off-topic here, but thought I should point out: Indymedia UK hides holocaust denial articles and comments, as well as racist, pro-israel, pro-iraq-war wank, etc. Racism is racism, from wherever it happens to spew.

If you find any holocaust denial material on here, point it out to the Indymedia UK moderators for hiding.

IMC bloke