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U.S. doctors involved in Guantanamo torture
Doctors at the U.S. detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Gharib violated the Geneva Conventions by determining the parameters for abusing the detainees, including sleep deprivation, stress positions and other coercive techniques.
The New England Journal of Medicine published an article which provided the most accountable information so far about the behavior of doctors at Guantanamo and Abu Gharib.
"Clearly, the medical personnel who helped to develop and execute aggressive counter-resistance plans thereby breached the laws of war," stated the article, which is based on interviews with several army personnel and recently released official reports.
The article, entitled “When Doctors Go to War",also accused doctors of breaching professional ethics by showing the detainees’ health records to intelligence officials and by attending interrogation sessions.
Such abuses clearly violate the Third Geneva Convention which states that “No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever.”
Doctors set the parameters for abuse
The article also said that the doctors collaborated with interrogators by determining the parameters for abuse; such as setting 72-hours “sleep management” schedules for detainees, giving only bread and water for those subject to “dietary manipulation” and approving long periods of isolation.
Doctors also had the final word on the interrogation plan for each prisoner. The report cited a military police commander as saying that "The medic would screen him and ensure he was fit for interrogation ... After that the medic would watch over the interrogation from behind the glass.”
The British medical journal, the Lancet, published an article in August that said that medics at Abu Gharib didn’t report the abuse of detainees and accused them of forging death certificates. But the new report asserts for the first time that the doctors were actively involved in the abuse.
Tutu demands prsioners’ release
Meanwhile, the South African archbishop Desmond Tutu called for the release of the Gunatanamo detainees and other suspects detained in the United Kingdom without trial, saying that such detentions were “unacceptable and distressing”.
His statement followed news that all four Britons detained in Guantanamo will be released within weeks.
"The rule of law is in order to ensure that those who have power don't use their power arbitrarily and every person retains their human rights until you have proven conclusively that so-and-so is in fact guilty." Tutu said.
"We in South Africa used to have a dispensation that detained people without trial and the world quite rightly condemned that as unacceptable.
"Now if it was unacceptable then how come it can be acceptable to Britain and the United States. It is so, so deeply distressing." He said.
Shami Chakrabarti, head of civil rights group Liberty, has called on the British government to "practice what it preaches" and either release or charge the detainees.
Foreign suspects detained in the United Kingdom are being held at Belmarsh and Woodhill prisons.
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=6773
"Clearly, the medical personnel who helped to develop and execute aggressive counter-resistance plans thereby breached the laws of war," stated the article, which is based on interviews with several army personnel and recently released official reports.
The article, entitled “When Doctors Go to War",also accused doctors of breaching professional ethics by showing the detainees’ health records to intelligence officials and by attending interrogation sessions.
Such abuses clearly violate the Third Geneva Convention which states that “No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever.”
Doctors set the parameters for abuse
The article also said that the doctors collaborated with interrogators by determining the parameters for abuse; such as setting 72-hours “sleep management” schedules for detainees, giving only bread and water for those subject to “dietary manipulation” and approving long periods of isolation.
Doctors also had the final word on the interrogation plan for each prisoner. The report cited a military police commander as saying that "The medic would screen him and ensure he was fit for interrogation ... After that the medic would watch over the interrogation from behind the glass.”
The British medical journal, the Lancet, published an article in August that said that medics at Abu Gharib didn’t report the abuse of detainees and accused them of forging death certificates. But the new report asserts for the first time that the doctors were actively involved in the abuse.
Tutu demands prsioners’ release
Meanwhile, the South African archbishop Desmond Tutu called for the release of the Gunatanamo detainees and other suspects detained in the United Kingdom without trial, saying that such detentions were “unacceptable and distressing”.
His statement followed news that all four Britons detained in Guantanamo will be released within weeks.
"The rule of law is in order to ensure that those who have power don't use their power arbitrarily and every person retains their human rights until you have proven conclusively that so-and-so is in fact guilty." Tutu said.
"We in South Africa used to have a dispensation that detained people without trial and the world quite rightly condemned that as unacceptable.
"Now if it was unacceptable then how come it can be acceptable to Britain and the United States. It is so, so deeply distressing." He said.
Shami Chakrabarti, head of civil rights group Liberty, has called on the British government to "practice what it preaches" and either release or charge the detainees.
Foreign suspects detained in the United Kingdom are being held at Belmarsh and Woodhill prisons.
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=6773
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We know that medical personnel have failed to report to higher authorities wounds that were clearly caused by torture and that they have neglected to take steps to interrupt this torture. In addition, they have turned over prisoners' medical records to interrogators who could use them to exploit the prisoners' weaknesses or vulnerabilities. We have not yet learned the extent of medical involvement in delaying and possibly falsifying the death certificates of prisoners who have been killed by torturers.
More
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/351/5/415
Recently, there have been accounts of failure by U.S. medical personnel to report evidence of detainee abuse, even murder, . . .
Read More
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/extract/352/1/3