You may have already seen comments by the Camp Kommandant at Gitmo about the suicides being “an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us.” but the latest comments from the US administration take the biscuit. As it is the lead story on the BBC News you will realise it is not playing well here in the UK.
The BBC was given an interview by Coleen Graffy, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy. The inappropriateness of that title will become obvious when you read her assessment:
A top US official has described the suicides of three detainees at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a “good PR move to draw attention”.
Colleen Graffy told the BBC the deaths were part of a strategy and “a tactic to further the jihadi cause”, but taking their own lives was unnecessary.
More from Bush’s “Public Diplomat”
Speaking to the BBC’s Newshour programme, Ms Graffy, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, said the three men did not value their lives nor the lives of those around them.
Detainees had access to lawyers, received mail and had the ability to write to families, so had other means of making protests, she said, and it was hard to see why the men had not protested about their situation
Speaking in an interview on BBC News 24, Clive Stafford-Smith, the well known human rights lawyer, revealed that he knew two of the victims. They had previously taken part in a hunger strike. (The BBC report that all three had been on hunger strike) Maybe Ms Graffy does not consider that they then “protested about their situation”. It also has repercussions for the Gitmo staff as surely they should have been taking a special watch on these people who were, after all, in the highest security areas.
Stafford-Smith also drew attention to the statement from the military (quoted here from CNN:
“The remains of the deceased detainees are being treated with the utmost respect. A cultural adviser is assisting the Joint Task Force to ensure that the remains are handled in a culturally and religiously appropriate manner,
However. as with Al-Zarqarwi, the bodies will be autopsied:
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, spokesman for Multi-National Forces-Iraq, told reporters Saturday.
The personnel are familiar with background and cultural concerns for conducting the autopsy, he said. It was expected to be completed Saturday night. The body, he said, was in a “safe location.”
It is difficult to see the justification for any of these. A simple search would reveal this Q&A from Shahid Athar, a Former Chair of the Medical Ethics of the Islamic Medical Association of North America
Q. Is post-mortem (autopsy) of a dead body allowed?
A. Yes, but only as a medical or legal necessity to ascertain the cause of death.
These are actually seen as a desecration of the body and should only be carried out where absolutely necessary. All four will be considered as a violation. Incidentally, the pictures of Zarqawi’s body already show desecration by the lack of his head being turned to the right (so that he can face Mecca when buried) Ignore for the moment the strictures of the Geneva Conventions and consider the effect this will have on the “Arab street”.
The Gitmo suicides have renewed calls for the closure of Gitmo. Even a British minister is calling for it:
UK Constitutional Affairs Minister Harriet Harman told the BBC on Sunday the camp should be moved to the US or shut down.
“If it’s perfectly legal and there’s nothing going wrong there – well, why don’t they have it in America and then the American court system can supervise it?”
Four days from now is the anniversary of these words being agreed.
To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay, right or justice.
The US Attorney General can justly claim that they are archaic. The do, after all, form part of Magna Carta and King John did seal the original in 1215.
