UK: Parliamentary Committee Pulls Punches on Guantanamo (Human Rights Watch)

[Eugene]

UK: Parliamentary Committee Pulls Punches on Guantanamo

Foreign Affairs Select Committee's Report Overlooks Crucial Problems

(London, January 22, 2007) - A report by the UK's Foreign Affairs Select Committee
overlooks crucial problems with the US government's detention of hundreds of
detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights Watch said today.

"There is a need for international scrutiny of Guantanamo, but it should be rigorous
and objective," said Tom Porteous, London director of Human Rights Watch. "This
report glosses over US policies and practices that are unacceptable by international
standards."

The report, issued on January 21, contends that although abuses of detainees took
place in Guantanamo in the past, it is "highly unlikely" that they continue at the
present time. Yet the committee members reached this conclusion without interviewing
any detainees, let alone talking to them confidentially.

"The Foreign Affairs Committee's methodology was deeply flawed," said Joanne Mariner,
terrorism and counterterrorism program director at Human Rights Watch. "By speaking
to the interrogators but not to the detainees, the committee lacks a fair basis for its
findings."

-snip-

Another worrying aspect of the Foreign Affairs Committee's report is its implicit
endorsement of the US government's claim that detainees perceived to be dangerous
can be detained indefinitely without charge.

-snip-

Full article: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/01/27/uk15201.htm

Also available here: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/1c4a363f2d5f056e1129616044505b4f.htm

Related DU thread: Guantanamo fails to meet basic British standards: lawmakers