Russia Tortures Released GITMO Prisoners
Filed under: Europe ~ Russia
Human Rights Watch has released a report finding that, as its press release states: "Former Guantanamo detainees who were sent home to Russia in 2004 experienced torture and other abuse despite Moscow's pledge to the US government that they would be treated humanely." According to HRW: "The seven Russians were all detained soon after the US invasion of Afghanistan and eventually spent about two years in Guantanamo. Although they complained of mistreatment by the Americans, all of the detainees repeatedly asked authorities at Guantanamo not to be returned to Russia because they expected to be treated worse there."
There are two obvious lessons to be draw from this: First, it may be that too much pressure was put on the U.S. adminstration to process these cases by left-wing forces, resulting in hasty decisions that left them worse off than they would have been in custody. Second, as Carroll Bogert, associate director of Human Rights Watch and author of the report, states: "Governments with records of torture don't suddenly change their behavior because the US government claims to have extracted some kind of assurance from them."
UPDATE: Radio Free Europe reports the findings of a Russian study on the use of torture in Russia. Here's the lead: "According to a new study published on March 28 by the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Committee Against Torture, a Russian human rights organization, every 25th person in Russia is tortured, beaten, or harassed by law enforcement officials each year."
del.icio.us | 
digg | 
technorati | 
stumble upon | 
furl | 
reddit