In January 2002 the international media focus turned its attention to the assembling of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo bay in Cuba. At the time of writing 110 prisoners had arrived and there is talk of expanding the facilities to accommodate 1000.
What had caused the great media focus was an international political row following the comment of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that technically the prisoners were not Prisoners of War and therefore were not subject to International conventions such as the Geneva Convention.
So the row began; the Europeans and
the UN began seeking reassurances that such was not the case and the Geneva
conventions would be respected. The UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson
reminded America of “international and legal obligations”. The Americans
in return cited that the prisoners would be treated fairly and also claimed
that they would be given Halal meals and that the conventions prevented proper
interrogation and thus were unnecessary. Then following domestic pressure the
UK foreign minister Jack Straw said that the “prisoners - regardless of
their technical status - should be treated humanely and in accordance with customary
international law.” The Americans also met this comment with reassurances
of humane treatment.
Meanwhile news broke of the prisoners being kept in conditions depriving them
of any touch and sight sensation causing further uproar from human rights groups
such as Amnesty International.
The hypocrisy on the US’s part is nothing new though, for she has flouted ‘international laws’ and ‘human rights’ many a time whilst simultaneously calling on countries like China and Iraq to adhere to them. Even recently we saw the bombing of a prison in Afghanistan, the continuation of bombing on Afghanistan after the collapse of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda and also the continuation of bombing in Iraq, as well as the vast sums of financial aid given to despotic dictators who are famous for killing and torturing their people like Uzbekistan’s Karimov.
The US’s selective support for the laws, that she herself claims to believe in, was also seen a few years back in the row over the International Court of Justice. The US opposed the idea when her own soldiers had to pass through it. Realising their brutality in Somalia and other places she reiterated her opposition to such an entity.
However, the mainly European cries of fowl play have fallen on deaf ears in America, for the Americans are not aiming for justice but for revenge and revenge alone. Consequently America has lost the moral high ground. How can she claim to be fighting for the whole civilised world when she refuses to adhere to laws that exist within it? The very laws that she has enforced upon others in the past. A clear case of a law unto herself exists here or as one newspaper columnist, highlighting the American lack of concern for international conventions, put it: “if you kill Americans, you‘re dead meat.”
Furthermore, the selection of Guantanamo bay indicates that America had no desire to obey any international or even national convention. Since Donald Rumsfeld admitted that America has many high security facilities to hold the prisoners, it is widely seen that the real reason for choosing Camp X-Ray is not the shark infested waters or the remote location, but the fact that it lies beyond any jurisdiction. Not even the American federal court’s jurisdiction or any other country’s court’s jurisdiction covers the bay or the camp leaving the prisoners officially in legal limbo.
Such a choice has put America beyond
any law, and once again allows the US to undermine the laws, norms and values
that the rest of the world thought America was fighting against Al-Qaeda for.
America could remedy this by selecting a court system of jurisdiction to deal
with the prisoners but she hasn’t as yet and even when she does, if she
does, her past record shows that she is likely to break the codes of such a
jurisdiction.
Indeed this current episode has clearly shown America’s arrogance once
again in getting her way and also shows that in the Capitalist world the highest
law is that of the jungle.
Allah (swt) says in Surah Al-Baqarah:
“And when it is said to them: ‘Make not mischief on the earth,’ they say: ‘We are only peacemakers.’ Verily! They are the ones who make mischief, but they perceive not” [TMQ Al-Baqarah: 11-12].
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