This Guantánamo man may have gained a trial, but it's not justice

[struggle4progress]

David Hicks has at last faced a military court. But his treatment has been deeply unfair, says Kate Allen

Thursday April 5, 2007
The Guardian

The prosecution by a military court last week of the Australian David Hicks had a surface veneer of respectability ... But this was a facade. Yes, Hicks "is the first terror suspect to face prosecution in revised military tribunals established after the US Supreme Court last year found the Pentagon's system for trying such detainees was unconstitutional". But that's a dubious distinction ....

.... Securing a trial wholly run by the US military that allows coerced evidence from secret detention centres and can impose the death penalty (including for "spying") with limited means of appeal, doesn't seem much of a tribute to diplomacy.

"Under a diplomatic deal, Mr Hicks would serve that term in Australia," the article reported; but this will provide scant hope for the 385 prisoners still held at the prison. It seems highly unlikely that the Pakistanis, Yemenis, Bosnians, Saudis, Afghans, Chinese and at least seven long-term UK residents still imprisoned will be able to strike such deals ....

As we show today in a new report ( www.amnesty.org.uk/guantanamo ), with the US authorities now holding 80% of Guantánamo's 385 detainees in harsh and inhumane solitary confinement conditions, despairing prisoners are now dangerously close to full-blown mental and physical breakdown. There were three apparent suicides at the camp last year, and there will almost certainly be others unless the US authorities stop warehousing prisoners in solitary and allow independent medical personnel to examine all the men ....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2050304,00.html

[cyberpj]

1. War Crimes. Just say it and indict them will you?

Not you. US.