British Government Defends Treatment Violating Geneva Convention

Workers' Daily Internet Edition : Article Index :

Captives at Guantanamo Bay:
British Government Defends Treatment Violating Geneva Convention

Stop the War Meeting in Newcastle:
"War Without End? US Policy and World Peace"

Amnesty International Seeks Access to Captives

Situation Deteriorates in Afghanistan as Rich Countries Promise to Rebuild

Russia Apprehensive at Growing US Presence in Central Asia

In interviews on radio and television yesterday, Ben Bradshaw, the Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office, claimed that all the captives at the US Guantanamo Naval Base "are being held in accordance with international norms and in accordance with the Geneva Convention".

His comments were made following visits at the weekend by British officials to the US base on the island of Cuba and his statement in Parliament on Monday, but also after the International Red Cross had criticised the treatment of those held, and as legal action against the US government, supported by a former US Attorney-General is due to begin in Los Angeles.

The British government has been reluctant to make any statement about the captives, three of whom are British citizens, which might contradict the self-serving position of the US government, that the captives are not prisoners of war but "unlawful combatants". This definition removes the US from observing the norms of the Geneva Convention governing POWs and, amongst other things, means that those held captive can be interrogated at length by their captors.

However, Ben Bradshaw did acknowledge that "it may well be that some of the detainees are entitled to prisoner of war status", although he found some difficulty in defining what a prisoner war was and claimed that as prisoners of war the captives might be in a worse position, since then they could "be detained indefinitely without charge until hostilities cease".

Article 4 of the Geneva Convention of 1949 clearly states that prisoners of war are those who have "fallen in to the hands of the enemy" and amongst several categories includes "members of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict as well as members of militias or volunteer corps forming part of such armed forces". Article 5 of the Convention states, "Should any doubt arise as to whether persons, having committed a belligerent act and having fallen into the hands of the enemy, belong to any of the categories enumerated in Article 4, such persons shall enjoy the protection of the present Convention until such time as their status has been determined by a competent tribunal."

Thus international law not only presents a clear definition of the status of those held captive but also provides the means to establish this status, removing such a decision from the power of the "detaining authority". The fact that both the British and US governments are clearly in breach of this convention confirms once again their contempt for international law and norms of conduct. Whether in the case of the sovereign rights of states or individuals, the British government has been the main apologist for violations of international norms and laws on a variety of spurious contexts, which amount to stating that "Might is Right" and, as in medieval times, that the most powerful can ride roughshod over the rights of all.

The British government is prepared to flout international law and to allow the United States to violate the legal rights even of its own citizens in the furtherance of the so-called "war against terrorism". In so doing it is declaring that it is only the arbitrary decisions and values of the big powers that matter, while those norms and laws established internationally in the aftermath of the Second World War can be torn up and ignored.

On Monday, January 21, around 200 people attended a public meeting in Newcastle organised by the Tyneside Stop the War Coalition to oppose the US war in Afghanistan. The public meeting was held to reflect on the war so far and consider what happens now. Three speakers addressed the meeting – a representative of the Stop the War Coalition, Dave Webb of Yorkshire CND and Professor George Wright Jr from the United States.

The first speaker posed the question: did the peace movement lose the war? She then proceeded to elaborate all the predictions that had been forecast by the progressive forces if the US attacked Afghanistan. This included the horrific loss of life among the people of Afghanistan that had exceeded the loss of life in the United States terrorist attack, the destruction of the country and encirclement of whole areas with unexploded bombs, the destabilisation of the region and the eruption of conflicts all over the globe, even conflicts that were on the point of resolution such as in Colombia. After speaking about the important achievements of the Stop the War movement, she called on the movement to continue to prepare itself to respond even more vigorously to the challenges ahead as the US sought to control the whole world and to extend the "war on terrorism" to other countries.

Dave Webb then gave a very revealing presentation on the US strategy to develop further its militarisation of space. Using official documents that are available, he showed how the US intends to globalise its weaponry and surveillance systems from space by 2020 and then spoke about the global opposition from the people and the many ways that the people are opposing this.

Then George Wright, after speaking about how many US people had opposed the launching of the war against Afghanistan, spoke in detail about US policy to get total hegemony over Central Asia so as to control that area of the world. He spoke about how the Bush administration had been preparing for some time to find a way of overcoming what they call the "Vietnam syndrome" in order to launch their attack on Afghanistan and quoted sources that showed that this had been in preparation before September 11. He exposed the claims of the US government that they were completely unprepared for the terrorist attack when it came. He made a number of remarks showing how the American people have all the same concerns as the people in Britain and emphasised how the monopoly media deliberately black out news of the opposition to the war in the US. The audience warmly applauded all of the speakers.

After the speakers were finished there were many questions and contributions from the floor and people announcing forthcoming events. One person spoke in relation to the plans of the US to extend the war and said that the US was presenting a very real threat to North Korea. She pointed out that she had recently had the honour to visit the country. She drew attention to a meeting organised by the Society for Friendship with Korea to be held shortly in Newcastle. This is aimed at dispelling the misconceptions about the country and to familiarise people with the situation on the divided Korean peninsular where the US has thousands of troops stationed as well as nuclear weapons.

After further discussion and announcements the meeting concluded successfully, very much reflecting the desire to consolidate the unity of the people’s forces against the intervention in Afghanistan and the "war on terrorism" and to further this work on many fronts.

Amnesty International is demanding access to the Guantanamo Bay camp where US authorities are holding alleged al Qaida and Taleban prisoners. It said it was alarmed at the veil of secrecy surrounding prisoners at the camp.

Referring to pictures released by the United States showing the detainees manacled and wearing blacked-out goggles, ear muffs and surgical masks, Amnesty's Director of Policy Claudio Cordone said: "The imposition of sensory deprivation bears the hallmarks of known methods to break prisoners prior to interrogation." He told a news briefing, "While there are legitimate security considerations... we feel the measures adopted in their regard... go well beyond what is necessary from a security point of view."

"These people are prisoners of war, how the United States wants to characterise their legal status is not the question, it is what international law characterises them as," said Amnesty legal adviser Christopher Hall.

He said the United States could be guilty of a war crime if it tried them before a military tribunal, saying this did not constitute a fair trial under international human rights legislation.

Amnesty warned that Britain and other signatories of the Geneva Convention could breach international human rights law if they failed to warn the United States that it could not deny detainees their basic rights. Those rights include the right to be informed of their rights and to counsels of their choice.

Both the Red Cross and UN human rights commissioner Mary Robinson consider the captives prisoners of war.

Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark is backing a petition to a federal judge in Los Angeles over the future of the captives at Guantanamo Bay. He said that he will demand that the US government bring the suspects before a proper court and define the allegations against them.

Ramsey Clark added: "In any country that seeks to protect human rights to any degree, you are entitled to be brought before a judge promptly and entitled to counsel. You can't just hold people and interrogate them under conditions that are apparently coercive."

On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that aid groups working in Afghanistan are being warned that the country is becoming increasingly dangerous and unstable.

US military and UN officials say the deteriorating situation is not only slowing the flow of international aid, but it is also making the search for Osama bin Laden much harder.

"Overall, the trend in the last week has been very bad," said a UN official. "There have been lots of reports of trouble throughout the country."

According to intelligence reports, the amount of explosives being smuggled into the country suggests an attack on US and other Western officials in Kabul.

In this situation, the British Ministry of Defence has said that its soldiers are helping Afghanistan build a new army, according to agency reports. The British-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is giving the interim Afghan administration "new ideas".

ISAF commander Maj. Gen. John McColl, for example, is attempting to persuade Afghan Defence Minister Mohammed Fahim that a small professional army is superior to large coalitions of tribal militias. The Defence Minister reportedly has ambitions to build an Afghan army of 250,000 troops.

As the aid agencies within the country launched a campaign to save hundreds of thousands of Afghan people from starvation, on Monday and Tuesday, in Tokyo, representatives of the developed industrial countries promised more than $1.5 billion to start the of rebuilding Afghanistan. The delegates came from the more than 60 countries and organisations invited by the four parties chairing the event – Japan, the European Union, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Hamid Karzai of the interim authority said he needed money fast to shore up his administration. "While we understand the procedural requirements for the delivery of international aid, unfortunately we have seen little signs from the international community in response to our urgent needs," he said.

The European Union, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United States unveiled their multi-million dollar pledges as aid experts estimated that reconstruction would require at least $15 billion over 10 years.

The United States said it would provide $296 million in aid this fiscal year with more to come. Japan's envoy on Afghan affairs, Sadako Ogata, urged the world to stick with Afghanistan for the long haul.

In Afghanistan, UN officials said at least 700,000 people faced starvation and exposure to winter weather. "People are dying," said regional UN co-ordinator Leslie Oqvist. "We are doing a great deal, but it's way below the level of need." He said in the south-west alone there were 200,000 internally displaced people at risk of dying after decades of war and four years of drought.

Less than a week after nine of their Senate colleagues had toured the region, a delegation of five US House representatives spent January 12-13 in Uzbekistan, AFP and Uzbek news sources reported.

Talks with Uzbek President Islam Karimov on January 12 were about broadening economic co-operation, AFP said. Without speaking directly about a quid pro quo, Kolbe, in remarks to journalists in the Uzbek capital Tashkent, nevertheless coupled thanks and praise for Uzbekistan's support of the US-led campaign against the Taleban with an announcement that Washington had awarded Uzbekistan $100 million in assistance, AFP reported. It is assumed that this was the $100 million in economic and humanitarian aid mentioned in a US-Uzbek intergovernmental memorandum, signed in November, which had already been reported but initially lacked official confirmation in Washington or Tashkent.

But Kolbe further noted that the $100 million was part of the $4 billion earmarked by Congress for fighting terrorism, AP reported – making it unclear whether the funds were more targeted at the Uzbek security/military sphere, or primarily intended to boost market reforms in the country. In fact Kolbe implied the emphasis would change over time. While noting that American assistance to Uzbekistan thus far has gone towards security measures and military training, he said, "Once the military operation in Afghanistan is complete, I believe the pace of economic assistance in the region will depend in large measure on the pace of economic reforms," AP reported.

Meanwhile Kazakh Khabar TV said on January 12 that the congressmen in their discussion with Karimov linked any future aid to progress in the human rights sphere in Uzbekistan. On the subject of American military assistance to Uzbekistan, the January 2002 edition of Armed Forces Journal International offered a detailed account of how the Pentagon quietly started training programmes throughout the region in early 1999. In all the Central Asian nations (except neutral Turkmenistan) US Army Special Forces held as many as four one-month courses a year that "focused on patrolling, the use of various small arms and explosives, and other small-unit skills useful in combating insurgency forces", the journal said.

On January 12, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also added to the picture of long-term, behind-the-scenes military network-building between the US and Central Asia that only became public after September 11. Since 1997, seminars and exercises at the George C. Marshall European Centre for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, have included 290 mid-level military officers and politicians from Central Asia (out of 2,031 participants from dozens of countries since the initiative began in 1993). No less than the covert Green Beret training programmes within Central Asia, the Marshall Centre initiative laid the groundwork for regional military co-operation with the Pentagon after September 11, "which appeared to have been gained virtually overnight, [but] was actually the result of years of work", the newspaper said.

Following a visit to Termez on the Uzbek-Afghan frontier to inspect the Friendship Bridge, which Karimov opened to humanitarian aid deliveries late last year, the congressional delegation arrived in the Tajik capital Dushanbe on January 13 for a meeting with President Imomali Rakhmonov. Again the theme was economic aid and development, with Rakhmonov stressing the importance of economic assistance to Afghanistan to underpin political stability. Meanwhile Kolbe informed journalists that Washington would probably not be expanding its military presence in Central Asia.

Representative Kolbe's reassurance that America was unlikely to expand its military presence in the region was directed almost certainly towards Moscow, which has been showing signs of increasing nervousness about the scale and intentions of the Pentagon's deployment in Central Asia. For instance, two days before the group of congressmen visited Dushanbe, head of the Russian State Duma (lower house of the Russian parliament) Gennadii Seleznev led a delegation of his own to Tajikistan, Russian and local news sources reported on January 11. His talks with President Rakhmonov focused on economic co-operation issues, Tajik TV said.

In large part Seleznev's mission concerned expanding trade and parliamentary contacts, as he met his Tajik counterpart Saydullo Hayrulloev to discuss Russian investment in the country's power engineering sector and the work of an intergovernmental commission on exploiting Tajik natural resources, local radio reported. Yet Seleznev also said Tajikistan "should be one of Russia's closest allies in all fields", calling it "our direct strategic partner" and underlining the importance of the Russian presence in Tajikistan "in the military sphere", the radio reported. Moscow maintains about 20,000 troops in the country for the purposes of ensuring border security.

Meanwhile US and French forces are operating out of Dushanbe airport, Kazakh Commercial TV said on January 11, while ITAR-TASS reported that at least 300 French marines and commandos have been airlifted to Mazar-i-Sharif and Kabul via Dushanbe since late December. Kazakh TV further reported that the Tajik aerodrome at Kulob in the south of the country, which Pentagon inspectors were focusing on, had been judged too dilapidated to use, and that consequently Washington would presently be making an official request to Kazakhstan to make an aerodrome available for NATO member states. ITAR-TASS said on January 8 that Paris was hoping to take over an airfield at the village of Ayni near Dushanbe, but agreed it would need a lot of repair and modernisation to be useable.

Seleznev made a point of visiting the headquarters of the Russian Federal Border Guard Service in Tajikistan, and then inspecting a border guard training centre outside Dushanbe, ITAR-TASS reported on January 12. At the training centre, he said he wanted the Russian presence in Central Asia to be stronger, and stated outright, "The long-term military presence of the United States in the region is not in Russia's interests." Furthermore, he emphasised that deployments of French and (possibly) Italian troops in the region would be merely temporary, Interfax reported on 12 January; by implication, the deployment of Russian forces was permanent, or at any rate less temporary than that of the Western newcomers. Meanwhile ITAR-TASS reported that Seleznev told journalists on January 11 that the formal establishment of a Russian base in Tajikistan was smoothly going ahead; its status had been ratified by the parliaments in both Moscow and Dushanbe, and supplementary agreements were being worked out amicably. Tajik Deputy Foreign Minister Salohiddin Nasriddinov struck the same note when he reminded Iranian radio on January 11 that contingents of foreign soldiers in Tajikistan were temporary, while Russia was, is, and always would be his nation's strategic ally.

Despite Seleznev's insistence that Central Asia falls under Russia's long-term sphere of influence, Russian First Deputy Chief of Staff Colonel General Yurii Baluevskii told Interfax on January 14 that he believed American soldiers would not be pulling out of Central Asia for a long time to come: "It will definitely not be a month, I would say probably not even a year," he said. A Russian website commented on January 11 that "Russian experts assume" Washington will justify an extended military presence in the region by reviving "a long-forgotten plan to build a gas pipeline across Afghanistan". Kazakh Commercial TV expressed a similar opinion on January 11. Announcing a "political sensation," it reported that Washington had officially confirmed that the campaign against the Taleban was largely motivated by an intention to lay oil pipelines to carry Kazakh crude southwards via Afghanistan. In evidence the TV cited US Special Envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, alleged to have said that his goal was to make the pipelines project a reality. The TV further claimed that Kazakh servicemen had received special training in laying and guarding pipelines in war zones at an antiterrorist centre in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Meanwhile, on January 12, Pakistan's Petroleum Minister Usman Aminuddin said a $2 billion project to pipe about 20 million cubic meters of Turkmen natural gas per year to Pakistan – first mooted and later abandoned in 1998 by the hydrocarbon major Unocal – could be revived when peace returned to Afghanistan, AFP reported. Plans call for 743 kilometres of the 1,271-kilometer pipeline to traverse Afghan territory.

Yet another US Senate delegation was visiting the region this week, this time headed by Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, which was due to finish its tour with a stop in Kyrgyzstan on January 17, Reuters and CNN reported. The American group was scheduled not only to meet top officials in Tashkent but to visit Termez, enjoy the sights of ancient Bukhara, and fly over dried-up portions of the Aral Sea. A Russian website commentary asked, "So, what is the aim of the visit?" and concluded that Washington was worried about losing the competition with Russia for influence in Central Asia and was seeking to shore up its position with liberal gifts of cash to the local governments.

The rapid expansion of the US arsenal, barracks, warehouses to store humanitarian aid, administrative headquarters, and military contingent at the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek's Manas airport, signals that it is set to become a key hub for operations in Afghanistan. Galaxy transport aircraft, C-130 and AN-225 "Mria" cargo planes, fighter jets, and Boeing KC-135 refuelling planes have either been reported as landing or anticipated soon by Western and local news sources. Some 250 US military-technical personnel are in Bishkek already, and 3,000 US servicemen are expected to be based there in toto.

On Monday, January 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for the creation of a four-nation alliance of former Soviet gas-producing and -transporting countries, a gesture that underscores Russia's need for the key Central Asian resource.

Putin's invitation to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, which has the fifth-largest reserves in the word, was made after a day of negotiations with Turkmen leader Saparmurat Niyazov that focused on the countries' bilateral oil and gas trade.

"Its creation would allow us to have effective control over volumes and the direction of exports of Central Asian gas," Putin was quoted by Reuters as saying after the talks.

Faced with falling gas production at its supergiant Siberian fields, Russia has grown to depend on imports from the gas-rich Caspian state to fulfil its long-term gas contracts with Europe.

Russia’s Gazprom production of gas has fallen from 553.7 billion cubic meters in 1998 to 512 bcm in 2001. Meanwhile, Turkmenistan's exports to Russia have increased. Of the 51 bcm of gas it produced last year, Turkmenistan exported more than two-thirds – all of it to Ukraine, Russia and Iran.

"At a political level, Putin and the Central Asian states are starting to build a basis for a mutually beneficial gas relationship," said Laurent Ruseckas, a London-based Caspian expert at Cambridge Energy Research Associates. "Russia wants to create conditions where gas will flow without much interruption."

Russia has failed to secure stable gas deliveries from Turkmenistan since 1995, with price being the main point of contention. However, Gazprom is in discussions to ink a long-term agreement under which the gas monopoly would buy 2 bcm in 2003 and then boost purchases to 20 bcm a year for the next 10 years, Reuters reported.

Itera will buy 10 bcm of Turkmen gas in 2002 at $40 per 1,000 cubic meters while Iran is expected to import 8 bcm at $40 per 1,000 cubic meters.

Gazprom still holds a virtual monopoly over Turkmenistan's export routes, but the construction of a $2 billion, 1,630-kilometer Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline is under consideration.

The pipeline – which is primarily supported by oil major Royal Dutch/Shell – would run from Turkmenistan under the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan, through Georgia and terminate in Turkey. Pipeline capacity would eventually peak at 30 bcm.