The lawyer for an Australian inmate at Guantanamo Bay says a leaked version of a Red Cross report alleging torture at the prison camp is consistent with inmate statements. The New York Times newspaper published leaked details of the report, which accuses the American military of beating some detainees, as well as using physical coercion described as "tantamount to torture". Australians David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib are among the 550 men held at the facility.
The report, which the Red Cross is yet to confirm, says some prison doctors violated medical ethics by helping plan interrogations. Stephen Kenny, the lawyer for Australian detainee David Hicks, told the ABC's AM program that the accusations were consistent with previous reports. "What it does is confirm the treatment and the allegations that have previously been made by not only David to us, but by others who have been released," he said. Mr Kenny says it appears the US has set an unwelcome new standard in the treatment of prisoners. "I know from the people I've spoken in the International Red Cross is that they say other countries where we know their human rights records are appalling, all they say to the Red Cross is 'well we are just following the rule of Guantanamo Bay, we're just doing what the Americans are doing'," he said.
Hicks's father Terry says the report backs up his claim that his son was tortured. Mr Hicks says he was told of the tortures when he visited his son in August. "He was subjected to sound, cold, strobe lights and stress and duress tactics in Guantanamo Bay. He did say he endured 10 hour lots of beatings in Afghanistan," Mr Hicks said. The Pentagon says it is not mistreating detainees at Guantanamo Bay. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher has defended the US Government's treatment of detainees. "They're treated humanely and in accordance with standard international, relevant international practice," he said. |