Zaeef Tortured
to Death in Guantanamo: Report
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Zaeef
was arrested by the Pakistan’s security forces loyal to the
United States
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QUETTA,
July 31 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef,
former ambassador of Afghanistan in Islamabad, has been killed in a
detention facility at Guantanamo, Cuba, family sources alleged, a
Pakistani newspaper reported Wednesday, July 31.
According
to a report published in the Balochistan Post, Zaeef was tortured
excessively at the detention center. The torture was so excessive that
he breathed his last at the camp, his relatives said.
However,
neither the Afghan government nor U.S. sources have confirmed his
death, the paper said.
Mullah
Abdul Salam Zaeef was arrested by Pakistan’s security forces loyal
to the United States ignoring his diplomatic status and his
application for political asylum in Pakistan to escape the wrath of
Americans in Afghanistan.
He
was the senior most official of the Taliban government who could be
arrested by the U.S. forces with the help of Musharraf regime.
“Pakistani
authorities later handed him over to their masters and they bundled
him to Guantanamo prison facility in Cuba along with hundreds of other
Afghan, Pakistan and Arab prisoners,” said the Post.
In
a report published last April and sent to the U.S. government, Amnesty
International hit out at violations of the rights of prisoners held by
the U.S. army in Cuba and Afghanistan.
News agencies reported Amnesty’s concern that treatment of detainees
by the U.S. undermines human rights and may be cruel and degrading.
“The
USA’s ‘pick and choose’ approach to the Geneva Convention is
unacceptable, as is its failure to respect fundamental international
human rights standards,” including refusing detainees access to
legal counsel, the organization said in the 62-page document.
Among
other charges, the group said Washington had transferred and held
prisoners in conditions that could amount to cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment.
In
the strongly worded memorandum, Amnesty repeated its request to
Washington to be allowed to visit the prisoners held in Afghanistan
and at the U.S. base where some 300 alleged members of the Al-Qaeda
group or the Taliban were sent. Those detained represent 33 countries.
Another
200 others are being held at U.S. facilities in Afghanistan. A
previous request sent to the U.S. government in January 2002 came to
nothing, the London-based human rights organization said.
In
its report, Amnesty again accused the United States of failing to
grant the detainees rights that are universally recognized for any
suspect placed in provisional detention.
It
denounced the American authorities’ failure to give the detainees
prisoner of war status, to grant them access to a lawyer or to bring
them before a competent tribunal as laid down in the Geneva
Conventions.
“The
U.S. government must ensure that all its actions in relation to those
in its custody in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay comply with
international law and standards,” Amnesty International wrote.
“This
is crucial if justice is to be done and seen to be done, and if
respect for the rule of law and human rights is not to be
undermined.”
Meanwhile,
a U.S. media report said Tuesday, July 30, that the fact that some of
Osama bin Laden’s bodyguards may be among the prisoners held by the
United States in Guantanamo Bay suggests that the Al-Qaeda leader is
probably dead, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
If
Bin Laden’s bodyguards were captured, it is a likely indication that
he is dead, U.S. officials told CNN.
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