[Marinir] [BBC.News] UK alarm over Guantanamo trials

[Hong Gie]

   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3837823.stm

 Last Updated: Thursday, 24 June, 2004, 23:56 GMT 00:56 UK
 UK alarm over Guantanamo trials

The detainees have been held for two years without trial
The planned military tribunals for terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay
are unacceptable, says the British attorney general.
Four British men are still being held at the Cuban camp.

In a speech on Friday, Lord Goldsmith is to say there can be "no compromise"
on certain principles and the US tribunals would not offer a fair trial.
The UK government has always voiced reservations over the trial plans. Lord
Goldsmith is underlining the point.
Whitehall officials say they do not see the speech as the minister ramping
up British rhetoric on the issue.

British suspects
President Bush announced plans for the military commissions to try 600
detainees at Camp Delta last July.
Britons Feroz Abbasi from Croydon, south London, and Moazzam Begg, from
Birmingham, were on the initial list of six to be tried under the
controversial set-up.
But they have now been taken off the list while discussions continue between
the US and UK about the future of all the British detainees.

Five other Britons were returned to Britain in March and were quickly freed
without charge.

 Surely we should be prepared to accept more intrusion into our personal
lives if that is needed to help prevent more terrorist attacks
Lord Goldsmith
Attorney General

Lord Goldsmith and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw have previously said the US
should either try detainees in accordance with international standards or
return them to Britain.
In a speech to the International Criminal Law Association in Paris on
Friday, Lord Goldsmith, the government's chief law officer, will be
forthright in spelling out British concerns.
He will say: "While we must be flexible and be prepared to countenance some
limitation of fundamental rights if properly justified and proportionate,
there are certain principles on which there can be no compromise.
"Fair trial is one of those - which is the reason we in the UK have been
unable to accept that the US military tribunals proposed for those detained
at Guantanamo Bay offer sufficient guarantees of a fair trial in accordance
with international standards."

'Hard balance'
Lord Goldsmith says the international community needs to be "flexible and
imaginative" in the fight against groups like al-Qaeda.
"Any restriction on fundamental rights must be imposed in accordance with
the rule of law," he will argue.
The government has already opted out from part of the European Convention of
Human Rights after the 11 September US terror attacks.
The attorney general says the right balance must be struck between security
and individual freedoms.
He will say: "It will often be a hard balance and extraordinary times will
justify it being struck in different ways.
"Surely, for example, we should be prepared to accept more intrusion into
our personal lives through more sharing of information between public
agencies if that is needed to help detect and prevent more terrorist attacks
or bring to justice those responsible?
"And ... extraordinary events will lead to derogations from the practices we
observe in times of peace and tranquillity."
Lord Goldsmith will also warn that the Channel Tunnel "must itself be a
target for a terrorist attack".
He will underline the importance of Anglo-French cooperation against
terrorism.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3506774.stm

Last Updated: Saturday, 13 March, 2004, 09:50 GMT
Guantanamo man condemns treatment

About 600 people are still being held at Guantanamo Bay
One of the five Britons freed from Guantanamo Bay has said he received
"horrific" treatment while he was detained by the US government.
Tarek Dergoul, 26, from east London, said he was held in inhuman conditions,
interrogated at gunpoint and beaten.
The family of the 26-year-old believe his mental health has been "severely
affected" by his experiences.
Another freed Briton, Jamal Udeen, has also complained of poor treatment at
the Cuba camp, which the US denies.
Mr Dergoul, from Bethnal Green, was arrested two years ago in Afghanistan on
suspicion of terrorism.
He was one of five Britons released by the US on Tuesday. Four are still
being held at the camp in Cuba.

  Tarek Dergoul condemns the US and the UK governments for these gross
breaches of human rights
Statement from Tarek Dergoul

After returning to the UK, former care worker Mr Dergoul was freed without
charge from British police custody on Wednesday.
In a statement released through his solicitor Louise Christian, he said
"horrific things" had happened to him during detention at Bagram, Kandahar
and Guantanamo Bay.
"This has included... botched medical treatment, interrogation at gunpoint,
beatings and inhuman conditions," it said.

Torture
He accused the US and UK governments of "gross breaches" of human rights and
demanded the immediate release of all the other detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

  The beatings were not as nearly as bad as the psychological torture -
bruises heal after a week but the other stuff stays with you
Jamal Udeen


Guantanamo Briton 'was tortured'
"Tarek finds it very difficult to talk about things and his family believe
his mental health has been severely affected by the trauma he has suffered,"
the statement added.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, in an interview with Sir Trevor McDonald
for ITV1's Tonight programme on Friday, dismissed the Britons' claims of
mistreatment.

He said: "We have watched Guantanamo Bay very carefully knowing of the
interest of a number of nations, including the United Kingdom, and knowing
that we have responsibilities under the Geneva Convention and because we are
Americans, we don't abuse people who are in our care."

Mr Powell said it was "not in the American tradition to treat people in that
manner".

The other three Britons who were released are Ruhal Ahmed, 22; Asif Iqbal,
also 22, and 26-year-old Shafiq Rasul, who are all from Tipton in the West
Midlands.

The four remaining at Guantanamo Bay are Feroz Abbasi, 23, from Croydon,
south London, Moazzam Begg, 36, from Sparkhill, Birmingham; Martin Mubanga,
29, from north London, and Richard Belmar, 23, from Maida Vale, London.