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Afghanistan: Questions Over US Treatment Of Prisoners
Saturday, January 26, 2002
(Time)
Editor: Deepak Tripathi
Contributing Editors: James Morgan & Roger Hardy

Location -- Source
After several good weeks in its campaign against al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters in Afghanistan, the United States is facing new criticism. This time it is over how its military is treating captured Arabs and Afghans who have been taken to the Guantanamo naval base on mainland Cuba. The latest difficulties are of America's own making. US military released pictures of Afghan prisoners -- handcuffed, blindfolded and being helped by American soldiers to their cells after a 27-hour flight to Cuba for questioning and possible trial.

The pictures were for domestic purposes -- aimed at soothing the US public opinion that their country was being tough with the terrorists. They backfired. There are criticisms of the United States from several corners. The criticisms were led by the widely respected United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, who described the treatment of prisoners as unacceptable. The International Red Cross expressed its unhappiness, and said its officials would visit the prison camp and raise any issues privately with the United States administration.

Pressure on the British and other governments increased, prompting ministers to sound defensive. Some senior members of the governing Labour Party as well as those on the opposition benches in the British Parliament -- erstwhile supporters of the US-led military campaign -- began to express concern.

At the heart of these anxieties and criticisms of America are worries that pictures of suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters kneeling down and looking disorientated -- blindfolded and chained -- would play straight into the hands of hard-line Islamic fundamentalists in the Muslim world. The Arab population at large will feel humiliated. Anti-American feelings will be whipped up once again. Liberals and human-rights organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are already speaking out. Any legal process becomes difficult to pursue in these circumstances.

Donald Rumsfeld, the hard-faced American Secretary of Defence, had the upper hand in the internal government politics of Washington. He appears to have made a blunder -- certainly in foreign policy terms -- in suggesting that the prisoners were getting a better treatment than they deserved. His comments were again meant for the domestic audience. American officials sometimes forget that there is life outside the United States, too. There is reason to believe that the other military icon and the Gulf War hero, Colin Powell, will be allowed a higher profile on the diplomatic stage in the coming weeks and months.
(Economic Examiner News Source)
2002 © Economic Examiner. Ltd.

Just another mindless rant from out-of-house.

Dan