The Former Head of Abu Ghraib, Admits She Broke the Geneva Conventions:
“We all knew it was contrary to the Geneva Conventions. And we were told that this – these instructions were being given by Secretary Rumsfeld”
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Dozens of Abu Ghraibs
U.S. human rights groups have denounced before the U.N. Human Rights Committee that there are perhaps dozens of secret detention centres around the world where Washington is holding an unknown number of prisoners as part of its “war on terror”.
This week in Geneva, the Committee began to examine the United States’ compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, particularly with regard to its anti-terrorism activities.
On Monday, the members of the Committee, made up of 18 independent experts with recognised competence in the field of human rights, heard presentations from U.S. non-governmental organisations that accuse Washington of grave rights violations.
Priti Patel, an attorney and representative of the New-York based group Human Rights First, reported to the Committee members on the secret detention centres for individuals allegedly linked to terrorism.
“There are locations you know about, like Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, and Bagram in Afghanistan,” commented Patel, “but there are other locations which you know exist, but you don’t know exactly how many or where they are.”
According to Patel, these are transient facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan that are close to conflict zones, but move around, to wherever the United States decides.
“There are around 20 of them in Afghanistan, but you don’t know how many people are being held there, and you don’t know how they are being treated,” Patel told IPS.
“And then there is the worst case scenario, which is you don’t know even their location,” she added.
For example, Patel remarked, “we don’t know if people have been held in Diego Garcia (a small island in the Indian Ocean, home to a U.S. military base), but we have enough credible reports to make us believe it.”
And while the United States refuses to deny or confirm the existence of these secret detention centres, “we know that at least 36 people have been held in secret locations,” she stressed.