- Two British men who were held at Guant·namo Bay
claimed that their US guards subjected them to abuse similar to that perpetrated
at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
-
- In an open letter to President George Bush, Britons Shafiq
Rasul and Asif Iqbal accused US military officials of deliberately misleading
the public about procedures at Guant·namo.
-
- Mr Rasul and Mr Iqbal, who were freed in March after
being arrested in Afghanistan and held without charge for more than two
years, allege that heavy-handed treatment was systematic.
-
- "From the moment of our arrival in Guant·namo
Bay (and indeed from long before) we were deliberately humiliated and degraded
by methods we now read US officials denying," the men write.
-
- The men describe a regime that included assaults on prisoners,
prolonged shackling in uncomfortable positions, strobe lights, loud music
and being threatened with dogs.
-
- At times, detainees would be taken to the interrogation
room and chained naked on the floor, the letter says. Women would be brought
to the room to "inappropriately provoke and indeed molest them. It
was completely clear to all the detainees that this was happening to particularly
vulnerable prisoners, especially those who had come from the strictest
of Islamic backgrounds," the letter says.
-
- Mr Iqbal and Mr Rasul have issued repeated allegations
of abuse at the camp since their release last March. Previous allegations
were dismissed by the US embassy in London, but after two weeks in which
America has been convulsed by images of torture and humiliation, their
latest challenge looked set to receive a more serious hearing.
-
- The spotlight has shifted from Abu Ghraib to other detention
facilities in America's war on terror as reports emerge from Afghanistan,
as well as Iraq.
-
- Shortly before their release last March, the two men
say a new practice was instituted in what became known as the "Romeo"
block. Prisoners were stripped completely. "After three days they
would be given underwear. After another three days they would be given
a top, and then after another three days given trouser bottoms," the
letter says.
-
- That account stands in direct contradiction to denials
this week from a Pentagon spokesman, Colonel David McWilliams, that nudity
and embarrassment were never used to break down prisoners. "We have
no protocol that allows us to disrobe a detainee whatsoever," Col
McWilliams told the Washington Post.
-
- Clive Stafford Smith, the lawyer who acted for Mr Rasul
and Mr Iqbal in a supreme court case in the US, said: "These guys
had been trying to put it all behind them, but they have been reading the
stuff this week and getting really angry that the US is lying again."
-
- The Guardian has learned that some of the British detainees
released from Guant·namo Bay have reported that they were sexually
abused. There is no way to independently verify these details.
-
- According to a source, who has interviewed them in secret
since their release, they were initially too ashamed to talk about it,
and are only now starting to give details. The source said: "They
are embarrassed about talking about it because they feel humiliated. We
have had an account that their religion was used against them, that a copy
of the Koran was brought in front of them and pages torn out."
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1216645,00.html
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