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Red cross criticizes detention { October 10 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/10/national/10GITM.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/10/national/10GITM.html
October 10, 2003
Red Cross Criticizes Indefinite Detention in Guantánamo Bay
By NEIL A. LEWIS
GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba, Oct. 9 — A senior official of the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday that the holding of more than 600 detainees here was unacceptable because they were being held for open-ended terms without proper legal process.
Christophe Girod, the senior Red Cross official in Washington, said on Thursday in an interview at the United States Naval Base here, "One cannot keep these detainees in this pattern, this situation, indefinitely."
Mr. Girod spoke as he and a team of officials from the international organization were completing their latest inspection tour of the detention camp. Although he did not criticize any physical conditions at the camp, which houses 660 detainees, most of them captured in the Afghan conflict, he said that it was intolerable that the complex was used as "an investigation center, not a detention center."
He said the International Red Cross was making the unusual statements because of a lack of action.
United States officials have said they have begun moving to sort the detainees, choosing which to release and which to take before military tribunals on criminal charges.
Some officials, notably Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, have said the detainees may be held until the effort against terrorism ends.
Mr. Girod said, "The open-endedness of the situation and its impact on the mental health of the population has become a major problem."
In 18 months, 21 detainees have made 32 suicide attempts, and human rights groups have said the high incidence of such events, as well as the number of detainees being treated for clinical depression, was a direct result of the uncertainties of their situations.
Mr. Girod said that in meetings with members of his inspection teams, detainees regularly asked about what was going to happen to them.
"It's always the No. 1 question," he said. "They don't know about the future."
Camp officials have said most of the detainees' mental health problems existed before they arrived.
Mr. Girod's comments departed from the usual reluctance of the International Red Cross to issue public criticism. The International Committee of the Red Cross, based in Geneva, is the sole group outside the government allowed to inspect the main detention center and meet the detainees.
Under longstanding procedures, the committee agrees that in exchange for access it will not generally publicize its findings but rather take complaints or criticisms to the government in charge in the hope that they can be addressed. Only when the Red Cross decides that its views are not being heeded does it publicize its concerns.
Mr. Girod said the views he was expressing had recently been placed on the Red Cross Web site, www .icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf /html/5QRC5V?OpenDocument.
He said the International Red Cross had been urging the Bush administration for months to make significant changes in operations here if it intended to keep using the site as an investigation center. The administration, Mr. Girod added, should consider establishing a policy under which most, if not all, of the detainees have some idea of when they can learn whether they will be charged or released.
The military has released 68 detainees to their home countries. Most of those sent to Afghanistan were freed. Those sent to Saudi Arabia were imprisoned there.
Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller of the Army, commander of the task force that runs the detention center and oversees the questioning of the detainees, said in an interview, "We don't want the enemy combatants here to stay one day longer than is necessary."
General Miller said the inmates had been kept in custody because they had valuable information to impart.
"There is intelligence of enormous value to the nation that is received every day" from the questioning, he said. The efficiency of the investigation teams has greatly improved, the general said, adding:
"We've gotten better at what we do. But as we go about developing intelligence, it takes some amount of time."
General Miller said officials were trying to determine whether the arrests on suspicion of espionage of three men who worked here and had contact with detainees indicated a wider effort to infiltrate the camp. Defense Department officials have said they plan to review tapes of some of the questioning to see whether they were mistranslated as part of a sabotage effort by translators. Two translators, one an enlisted member in the Air Force and the other a contract employee, have been arrested on suspicion of espionage.
Officials said that they were found with classified information that they were trying to take off the base and that they were suspected of an effort to carry messages from detainees to people abroad.
More strikingly, the Islamic chaplain at the base, Capt. James J. Yee of the Army, also known as Youssef Yee, was arrested on Sept. 10 after customs officers found a map of the base in his belongings as he was starting on home leave. The officials also said Captain Yee might have had messages from detainees, as well as notes about which detainees had been questioned by which investigators and on what subjects.
General Miller said investigators were trying to assess "the seriousness and breadth" of the problem. A team of about 24 investigators from the Army Southern Command in Miami began work on Wednesday to determine whether there was a wide conspiracy to infiltrate the base.
It was unclear whether the new investigation would further slow releasing detainees or taking them to military tribunals. In July, the administration designated six detainees who it said President Bush had deemed eligible for military tribunals. The group includes two Britons and one Australian. Their governments have objected to their being tried in a proceeding, without the usual safeguards, that could theoretically impose the death penalty.
Military tribunals, solely for noncitizens, are much more tightly controlled than civilian courts.
American officials offered assurances that the crimes with which the suspects would be charged would not carry the death penalty. But disapproval, especially in Britain, has produced a drawn-out negotiation that has delayed any trial. American officials said they were sensitive to the problem and did not want to create new political difficulties for Prime Minister Tony Blair, an ally in the Iraq war.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
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