Lib Dem MEP Sajjad Karim condemns US policy on prisoner humiliation

12.20.46pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 7th Jun 2006

Sajjad Karim MEP ""The world is becoming more convinced the US administration is institutionalising torture as an interrogation technique"

Sajjad Karim, Liberal Democrat MEP and spokesperson on human rights, today condemned US moves to omit a ban on prisoner humiliation from its basic guide to soldier conduct.

Lib Dem MEP and spokesperson on human rights

Sajjad said "The Pentagon's decision to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Convention, explicitly banning 'humiliating and degrading treatment,' marks a permanent shift away from international human rights standards and shows the US administration still intends to push the envelope on interrogation techniques."

"The world is becoming more convinced the US administration is institutionalising torture as an interrogation technique and its refusal to provide human rights protections in its formal directives fuels the fire of suspicion and accusation. The exclusion of this provision makes it virtually impossible for Bush to prove to the world there is not a direct link between his administration's declarations that it will not be bound by Geneva and the documented abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay."

"A defence official's confirmation that outrages upon personal dignity would ban 'well-honed' interrogation techniques adds credence to the Human Rights Watch reports that US interrogators desecrated the Qur'an and the International Red Cross testimonies of the religious humiliation of Muslim detainees at Guantanamo, Kandahar and Bagram."

"There is good reason why the Geneva Convention prohibits such activities: they provide the baseline international protections for all human beings, regardless of gender, religion or race, and the fact the US thinks they are not bound by them is completely unacceptable and totally reprehensible and testament to the widespread anti-American sentiment sweeping the globe today."

Notes:

Common Article 3 of the four 1949 Geneva Conventions bans torture and cruel treatment and covers all detainees - whether they are held as lawful combatants or traditional prisoners of war. The protections for detainees in article 3 go beyond the McCain amendment by specifically prohibiting humiliation, treatment that falls short of cruelty or torture.

In 2002, Bush suspended portions of the Geneva Conventions for captured Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. Among the directives being rewritten following Bush's 2002 order is one governing US detention operations, known as DoD Directive 2310.

The Pentagon has been redrawing its policies on detainees for the past year and intends to issue a new Army Field Manual on interrogation, which, along with accompanying directives, will represent core instructions to US soldiers worldwide.

Related Link:

Link to Sajjad Karim MEPs website.