US-arranged torture of Australians

Gareth Smith
Nuclear Disarmament Party

Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib was imprisoned in Pakistan, sent 
to Egypt by US authorities where he could be interrogated under 
torture and now languishes in Guantanamo where he has been 
further abused (SBS TV, Dateline, July 7, 2004).

On the program, Steve Watts, Centre for Constitutional Rights, 
New York said that: "Egypt has a long history of use of torture 
on persons in detention and we believe that Mamdouh was sent 
there for the express purpose of interrogating him under torture 
international law".

The US strategy of getting countries such as Pakistan, the 
Philippines, Morocco and Jordan to do its dirty work by 
extracting information under torture is known as rendition. Ex-
CIA head George Tenet boasted that 70 people were "rendered" 
before September 11.

All of this must have been known to the Howard Government through 
our "special relationship" with the US, failing that they only 
had to look at Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch web 
sites to get a complete run-down on torture.

Dateline tracked down British ex-Guantanamo internees who had 
spoken with Mamdouh. He told them that he had been blindfolded 
for eight months and had never seen the sun but saw his wife, 
Maha, and his kids every minute.

They took him to Egypt and said they would bring Maha and the 
children there as well — this prospect terrified him. He told 
them he had been beaten and electrocuted. Former Qatar Justice 
Minister, Dr Hajeeb Al-Naumi said: "Well, he was in fact 
tortured. He was interrogated in a way which a human cannot stand 
up." Similar allegations were made by Mamdouh to the Department 
of Foreign Affairs and Trade personnel about two years ago.

On the programme, Attorney General Phillip Ruddock stressed that 
Australian consular officials were denied access to Mamdouh by 
the Pakistani authorities but he admitted that before Mamdouh was 
abducted to Egypt, he was interviewed by Australian Federal 
Police officers. Doesn't the Australian Government have access to 
what transpired?

The following exchange between Mark Davis and Phillip Ruddock is 
a blatant example of how Australia has flouted not only the 
Geneva Conventions, but also the Convention Against Torture, 
Article 3 of which states that:

"1. No State Party shall expel, return ("refouler") or extradite 
a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for 
believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to 
torture.

"2. For the purpose of determining whether there are such 
grounds, the competent authorities shall take into account all 
relevant considerations including, where applicable, the 
existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of 
gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights."

MARK DAVIS: Why wouldn't you know that? Why wouldn't you know 
that by now? Why wouldn't your Department have made inquiries as 
to how an Australian citizen ends up secretly in an Egyptian 
jail?

PHILIP RUDDOCK: Well, you know what you're told. I'm simply 
saying that in relation to these matters, Egypt has not 
acknowledged at any time, as I am advised, that Mr Habib was in 
Egypt.

MARK DAVIS: Have the Americans advised that he was in Egypt?

PHILIP RUDDOCK: I mean we have made inquiries in relation to 
those matters. We know now he is in American custody in 
Guantanamo Bay. We see assertions about the way in which other 
issues are dealt with, but I'm not in a position to account for 
or detail the way in which America handled the individual 
detainees. I'm not in a position to do that. I mean, it may be 
appropriate for me to ask, but I've not seen fit to ask at this 
point in time.

MARK DAVIS: Well, these allegations of torture — and rather 
extreme torture — aren't new. What does it take for you to see 
fit to make inquiry of at least a cursory nature?

PHILIP RUDDOCK: Well, again, I mean, these are not matters about 
which we can make inquiries. We can ask, but they're not matters 
about which we can make inquiries.

What we have asked for and been assured is that in relation to 
not only Mr Habib's treatment in Guantanamo Bay, but also his 
treatment at all times that he was in American custody or care or 
control, that those matters be the subject of investigation and 
we've been assured that they will be but we have had no reports 
at this stage on the nature of those investigations, who is 
undertaking the inquiries or the results of them. But that is 
what we have sought and we believe it was appropriate that we 
should seek to have those inquiries undertaken.

If anyone required further proof of the utter moral bankruptcy of 
the Howard Government they need look no further. Phillip Ruddock 
is wrong. The CAT obligates a pro-active response to torture not 
a lame, laissez-faire, look-the-other-way retreat. For the Howard 
Government to face up to the torture of Australian citizens would 
mean facing up to the US for whom torture is a long established 
modus operandi. They are so in thrall to the US Empire that this 
is something they cannot contemplate.