German Human Rights Report Criticizes United States

As President George W. Bush’s mission to dismantle terror organizations around the world continues to pull the United States into military operations such as Afghanistan and Iraq, global concern increases about the legal and ethical dilemmas the war on terror leaves in its wake. A recent report from the German Institute for Human Rights addresses these concerns and criticizes the Bush administration for its questionable methods of bringing terrorists to justice and the overall direction the war on terror is taking the U.S. as it tries to prevent further attacks on its soil.

Infringing fundamental rights

The International War on Terrorism and Human Rights report, released on Tuesday, claims that the U.S. has been trampling on human rights since the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. Referring to legislation forced through Congress in the wake of the attacks, the human rights watchdog said, "A series of measures taken to combat terrorism are infringing on fundamental human rights," particularly civil and political rights.

The Bush administration is accused of using immigration laws and an expansive definition of the term "enemy combatants" to by-pass the criminal justice system and deny due process safeguards to persons it interrogated and detained as part of its terrorist investigation. The U.S. government has increased its powers of surveillance, investigation and detention within its own borders after the attacks, and sources quoted in the report suggest these were implemented to block public scrutiny and limit Congressional checks and meaningful judicial review. The authors of the report warn that these harsh steps could eventually prove to be counter-productive and actually boost support for terrorists.

Law free islands

The report also focuses on the treatment of prisoners held at the Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba where hundreds of suspected members of al Qaeda and Afghanistan's former Taliban regime are being held. The institute criticized what it called "parallel worlds without rights" and "law-free islands" such as the Camp X-Ray facility in Cuba and cooperatively run detention centers in places like Pakistan and the Philippines.

It expresses concern that prisoners held in such places have neither "access to fair legal proceedings" nor "limits on the time they could be held without judicial review." The detainees held in Cuba are kept in a state of sensory deprivation, refused the right of counsel and face trial in front of military courts with the prospect of being sentenced to death if found guilty of being an "enemy combatant."

International attention on Guantanamo Bay is set to intensify further after concessions by Washington to London on British prisoners in Guantanamo came to light last week. The U.S. said that it would not seek the death penalty for two British detainees after sustained pressure from the British government. Wolfgang Heinz, co-author of the Institute’s study, said the decision by the U.S. was "important as it sets a precedent that many other countries (with prisoners in the U.S. base in Cuba) will now follow up on."

Concessions seen to favor allies

Heinz said the decision was problematic as Washington would almost certainly not extend the concession to other countries, beyond Australia and Pakistan, already in talks with the U.S. This would create the impression of granting special favors to close allies, he said.

Accusing both the U.S. and Britain of ignoring human rights issues in the anti-terror campaign, in Afghanistan and elsewhere, Heinz called for independent monitors - from the UN among others - to be dispatched with American, British or German troops involved in these campaigns, to check whether soldiers are involved in abuses and to gather information from service personnel on abuses they observe.

Allegations of involvement in killing and torture

Based on interviews, press reports, and statements by Amnesty International and other non-governmental groups, the Institute’s study also highlights accusations that pre-trial killing or torturing of alleged al Qaeda terrorists in countries such as Egypt, Pakistan and Morocco have involved, or have been tolerated by, U.S. intelligence services.