|
Camp
X-Ray: First Major Anglo-American Split Since September Attacks
British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, Sunday 20 January, signaled Britain's growing unease at the treatment of more than 100 al-Qaida suspects held by American forces in Cuba when he called for them to be looked after "humanely" in accordance with international law, The
Guardian daily newspaper reported.
The prisoners are thought to include three Britons.
"The British government's position is that prisoners - regardless of their technical status - should be treated humanely and in accordance with customary law," The
Guardian quoted Straw. "We have always made that clear and the Americans have said they share this view."
Prominent backbenchers seized on a set of officially sanctioned photographs taken in Camp X-Ray, the detention center at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as evidence of humiliating treatment of the prisoners. The pictures show the prisoners, manacled hand and foot, kneeling before their guards, and wearing blacked-out goggles over their eyes and masks over their mouths and noses.
Mr. Straw asked British diplomats in Washington Sunday, January 20, to raise the issue of the photographs with the administration, specifically requesting information on the circumstances in which the pictures were taken.
In an attempt to calm the atmosphere in the seemingly first major Anglo-American split since the attacks of September 11, Downing Street attempted to calm the atmosphere. The prime minister's official spokesman reminded critics of America that the prisoners were suspected members of a highly dangerous group.
The spokesman added that Britain would wait to hear from its own officials, who spent the weekend at the base, before pronouncing on the inmates' treatment.
The U.S. military attempted to allay Mr. Straw's fears last night by saying that the photographs were taken as the prisoners arrived at the base after their flight from Afghanistan. "That's not how they're kept on a daily basis," said Major Eddie Villavicencio, of the U.S. southern command headquarters in Miami. "Detainees are treated quite humanely," The
Guardian read.
His remarks failed to calm a growing revolt on the Labor backbenches, the daily newspaper said.
The former foreign office minister Tony Lloyd said that the "shocking" pictures of the prisoners fell well below the standards which the U.S. should uphold.
"The Geneva convention is there to provide a floor below which civilized nations shouldn't fall," Mr. Lloyd told BBC1's Breakfast with Frost program. "Britain is a civilized nation - we must insist that our allies stick by that minimum standard."
As the all-party Commons human rights group demanded a meeting with the U.S. ambassador, William Farish, one senior minister, described the treatment of the prisoners as "monstrous".
The minister said there was no basis in law for the Americans to deny the suspects their full rights under the Geneva convention by labelling them as unlawful combatants. "How can we claim that we are upholding decent values if prisoners are treated in this way?" The newspaper quoted the minister asking.
Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. defense secretary alarmed British ministers last week when he told NBC's Meet the Press programme that the prisoners should not expect "country club" facilities, strongly defended the treatment of the inmates as "humane and appropriate".
"I think that the people who have been the most shrill on the subject, once they have more knowledge of the subject, will stop being so shrill," Rumsfeld said.
American forces have so far transferred up to 110 prisoners to Guantanamo Bay in the past week, with several hundred more due to make the gruelling flight from Afghanistan.
The daily newspaper pointed out that America's "high-handed behaviour" is alarming senior Whitehall officials who believe that the treatment of the inmates is undermining the efforts of the security and intelligence services to seek information from the Muslim community about suspect terrorists.
A senior well-placed official said: "That is a genuine belief across Whitehall from the moral point of view, and because it is counter-productive to humiliate people".
Another senior official described America's handling of the prisoners as "scandalous", adding: "American politicians are only concerned with American audiences", The
Guardian read.
Another official accused the U.S. of breaching the standards of a civilized society, adding that Tony Blair could not say so because he wanted to "keep in" with the Americans.
|
