Government remains unperturbed by Hicks/Habib abuse

Bob Briton

A small but significant stream of detainees — alleged "illegal 
combatants" — continues to leave the US concentration camp at 
Guantanamo Bay. Five French captives were sent back home late 
last month where they are being held and interrogated by French 
authorities. Five British detainees have been repatriated to the 
UK where they have all been released.

However, Australians David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib remain in US 
custody where they have been since their capture in late 2001. 
Unlike their British and French counterparts, Australian 
authorities have not succeeded in securing the release of their 
citizens from their US Coalition partners. In fact, Government 
spokespersons including the PM, the Foreign Minister and the 
Attorney General have expressed no interest in having the pair 
returned or any reservations about the dubious legal process they 
are about to face before a US military tribunal.

Neither has their satisfaction been shaken by persistent reports 
of abuse and even torture of the prisoners now held at 
Guantanamo. They have ignored Maha Habib's account of a telephone 
conversation with her husband Mamdouh last week. This was the 
first such contact allowed between the couple in the whole two 
and a half years Mr Habib has been detained. Mrs Habib passed on 
Mamdouh's claims that he had been tortured and that, rather than 
assisting him, Australian officials including ASIO agents had 
given him a "hard time".

Australian authorities have also ignored the very detailed 
allegations contained in a 115-page dossier prepared by three 
Britons recently released from Guantanamo.

Ruhel Ahmed, Asif Iqbal and Shafiq Rasul paint a very disturbing 
picture of the camp. Aside from the allegations of beatings, 
other abuse is claimed to include forcing prisoners to strip and 
watch videos of inmates sodomising each other. Guards would 
allegedly throw prisoners' Korans down the toilet and force them 
to shave as a sign of a break with their Muslim faith. Snakes and 
scorpions are said to be common in the cells at the camp.

Asif Iqbal says he recalls David Hicks and his especially rough 
treatment by the Guantanamo guards: "He told us he had endured an 
experience where he had been interrogated by Americans and hooded 
and beaten. He used to get interrogated every two to three days, 
sometimes every day. He was told that if he didn't co-operate, he 
would never go home. We had the impression he was being forced to 
make admissions."

The trio also claim that Hicks required urgent medical attention 
to a hernia and that camp authorities would only provide the 
attention if he co-operated. It is alleged that Hicks was moved 
from block to block within the US base to keep him disoriented.

The three former detainees also give an account of their meeting 
with Mamdouh Habib: "Habib was in a catastrophic state, mental 
and physical. As a result of his having been tortured in Egypt 
[see Gareth Smith's article on the US practice of "rendition" of 
detainees to countries for interrogation under torture in The 
Guardian of July 14] he used to bleed from his nose, mouth 
and ears when he was asleep. He got no medical attention for 
this."

The dossier maintains that Habib, too, was urged to co-operate in 
return for medical attention.

In spite of what the world now knows about the sickening 
depravity that was carried on at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, 
Australia's Foreign Minister has dismissed the claims out of 
hand. He says that the three witnesses are not "independent" and 
that, if any investigation were to be undertaken, he would be 
happy for the US authorities to do it. He added that the 
Australian Consul in Washington had visited Hicks and Habib on a 
number of occasions and that he had not reported anything 
untoward.

Mr Downer and his colleagues have shrugged off protests from the 
Federal Opposition, the detainees' lawyers and even Liberal 
backbencher Peter King. Mr Downer's party colleague struck a blow 
for decency by calling for an independent investigation of the 
claims or for there to be at least one Australian military 
representative on any US team inquiring into them.

Meanwhile, David Hicks has just passed another birthday in 
captivity without trial. He is due to face a military tribunal 
later this month charged with attempted murder, conspiracy and 
aiding the enemy. His lawyers are engaged in a frantic exercise 
to catch up with the US military authorities who have had over 
two and a half years to cook up a case to bring before their own 
kangaroo court.

US military authorities have set Hicks' charges down for a 
preliminary hearing on August 25 and want to begin the trial on 
September 28. His lawyers complain that this will not allow 
sufficient time to prepare the defence and want the proceedings 
to start on January 10 instead. It appears that, after 
imprisoning the "illegal combatants" for nearly three years 
without any charge, the US military is now in a hurry to dispense 
"justice" to the detainees.

Last month, along with the other 593 other Guantanamo detainees, 
Mamdouh Habib presumably would have been told of his legal rights 
for the first time since his capture in Pakistan in 2001. He will 
be given the right to appeal his "illegal combatant" status 
through the military and civil systems even though his matter has 
already been set down for hearing in a military tribunal.