Newsgroup: it.politica
Titolo: Come gli Usa difendono i diritti civili

USA: one year on - the legal limbo of the Guantánamo detainees
continues
The US government must end the legal black hole into which it has
thrown hundreds of detainees in Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, Amnesty
International said today, the first anniversary of the first prisoner
transfers from Afghanistan to the US Naval Base. There are currently
more than 600 detainees of around 40 nationalities held in Guantánamo.
"This legal limbo is a continuing violation of human rights standards
which the international community must not ignore", Amnesty
International said. 
"No access to the courts, lawyers or relatives; the prospect of
indefinite detention in small cells for up to 24 hours a day; the
possibility of trials by executive military commissions with the power
to hand down death sentences and no right of appeal: is this how the
USA defends human rights and the rule of law?", Amnesty International
asked, recalling the Secretary of State's promise last year that the
USA would 'not relax our commitment to advancing the cause of human
rights'.
Amnesty International has repeatedly written to the US authorities
calling for the detainees to be treated in accordance with
international law and standards, and has also requested access to the
Guantánamo facility. It has received no response.
Recent reports have suggested that up to 10 per cent of the detainees
were transferred to Guantánamo despite having already been deemed to
have been of no intelligence value during interrogations in
Afghanistan. Ten months ago, a deputy commander at the base was
reported to have said that some of the detainees appeared to be
'victims of circumstance'. 
"The importance of allowing these detainees to challenge the
lawfulness of their detention in a court of law cannot be overstated",
Amnesty International continued. "That is a fundamental human right,
and one that protects against arbitrary arrest and detention". 
Among the early transferees were six Algerian nationals seized by US
officials in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Their case was described by a
representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights as one of 'extrajudicial removal from sovereign territory'. 
Amnesty International is currently investigating reports that two men,
of Iraqi and Jordanian nationality, arrested and held incommunicado in
Gambia in November 2002 on suspicion of having links to al-Qa'ida,
have secretly been transferred to Guantánamo Bay. 
"In his State of the Union Address last year, President Bush said that
the USA will lead by defending justice everywhere", Amnesty
International recalled. "It is time his government looked to its
actions with regard to the Guantánamo detainees." 
Amnesty International has called for the voluntary repatriation of all
those detained as combatants during the international armed conflict
in Afghanistan, as required under the Geneva Conventions, unless they
are to be charged with criminal offences or would face serious human
rights abuses if returned to their country. Any other of the
Guantánamo detainees should be charged with recognizably criminal
offences and tried within a reasonable time, or released, but not
returned to any country where they would be at risk of torture,
execution or other serious human rights abuses.

 detainees continues
E chi s'indigna viene accusato di "antiamericanismo". Invece chi s'indigna
vedendo gli USA cosi' ridotti molto spesso e' il vero filoamericano, perche'
tollera che la "sweet Land of Liberty" non sia perfetta, ma chiede che
almeno sia coerente coi principi che dovrebbero esserne a fondamento morale
e civile. Perche' tanti di noi hanno imparato ad amare quell'America che
abbiamo vista nei film, letta nei romanzi, sognata anche nei fumetti.
Quell'America (perche' per un periodo quella era "l'America" tout court) coi
volti buoni di Walt E. Disney o di Henry Fonda, dove lo sceriffo del West
puo' essere spregiudicato ma sempre fondamentalmente giusto.
Perche' tanti di noi protestano con gli USA perche' in realta' li amano di
quell'amore disperato di chi si trova ingannato dall'amato. E la differenza
tra l'amico ed il picciotto e' proprio questa: quando si viene al dunque
l'amico tenta di richiamarti sulla strada giusta, il picciotto ti segue su
quella sbagliata.
Altro che "antiamericanismo"!
Andrea
salo...@mediacomm.it

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Concordo pienamente; sembra che qualsiasi critica sia sempre e solo
interessata a denigrare il ruolo americano, ruolo che di per sè
implica diritti e doveri, doveri che impongono di essere sempre
esaminati e giudicati come modello di riferimento. Nessuno si
scandalizza se un criminale uccide, mentre è molto più impressionante
se lo fa chi è considerato come punto di riferimento. A meno di non
essere perfetti tutti siamo suscettibili di critiche...