Human Rights Watch - Torture - Abuse of Detainees - Iraq

U.S.: Torture and Abuse of Detainees

“No one shall be subject to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
—The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 5

Each day brings more information about the appalling abuses endured by men and women held by the U.S. in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world. Widely used interrogation techniques have included hooding, stripping detainees naked, subjecting them to extremes of heat, cold, noise and light, depriving them of sleep – treatment that can violate the Geneva Conventions and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. This apparently routine infliction of pain, discomfort and humiliation has expanded in all too many cases into vicious beatings, sexual degradation, sodomy, near drowning and near asphyxiation. At least thirty detainees have died while incarcerated.

This must end. Torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading practices should be as unthinkable as slavery. Pentagon officials have announced that certain stress interrogation techniques will not longer be used in Iraq. But President Bush should ban all forms of abuse during interrogation In Iraq and everywhere else that the United States holds detainees. It is wrong in itself, and leads to further atrocities.

You can help. Write to President Bush and to Congress to urge an independent inquiry into the systemic problem of detainee abuse and to prohibit any such treatment now and in the future. Click here to e-mail President Bush, copy and paste the text of the following letter into the body of the message, edit it as you see fit, and sign your name and address.

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
			
Dear President Bush:
            
Like you, I share a "deep disgust" at the pictures of U.S. military personnel subjecting Iraqi detainees to cruel and humiliating treatment at Abu Ghraib. But the abuse was not limited to one prison in Iraq. U.S. forces have systematically abused detainees at numerous detention facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.

I write to ask you to act immediately to end the use of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees by U.S. forces or contractors. Protecting national security does not require human rights violations; indeed, the mistreatment of detainees harms U.S. efforts to end terrorism.

You and I would both be outraged if U.S. soldiers were hooded, paraded around naked forced to hold painful positions for long periods of time, deprived of sleep, deliberately subjected to extreme of heat, cold, noise and light, or forcibly submerged in water to the point of almost drowning. Yet top officials of the Defense and Justice Departments and the Central Intelligence Agency have approved just unlawful and cruel practices. Surely, detainees in the hands of U.S. forces should be treated no worse than we would want U.S. soldiers to be treated.

I urge you to announce that, from now on, no U.S. government officials will employ coercive interrogation techniques—without exception. You should make clear that the administration unequivocally proscribes the deliberate use of pain, suffering, or humiliation as part of any interrogation process, regardless of the locale, regardless of the legal status of the detainee, regardless of the secrecy or openness of the detention. You should take steps to back up your decision with necessary enforcement mechanisms, ensuring that any one who violates this policy will be held accountable.

I also urge you to publicly lend firm support to creation of an special commission to determine the extent of detainee abuse, those responsible, and the role of those up in the chain of command in encouraging, condonining or covering up detainees mistreatment. Such a commission’s report should be public.

Forceful action by you is needed to ensure this stain is lifted from America’s record.

Respectfully,
[Your name and address here]

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