New Guantanamo abuse probe

2006-10-18 09:59

San Juan, Puerto Rico - A US army colonel will travel to Guantanamo Bay this week to look into the latest allegations of detainee abuse at the isolated naval base, a military spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The colonel, whose identity was not disclosed by the Miami-based US Southern Command, will probe allegations that guards beat detainees and deprived them of personal items without provocation.

The colonel was appointed by the Southern Command on Friday to investigate after Marine Lieutenant Colonel Colby Vokey, who represents a detainee at Guantanamo, filed a complaint to the Pentagon's Inspector General's office alleging that detainee abuse was ongoing at the detention centre.

An affidavit from Vokey's paralegal, Marine Sergeant Heather Cerveny, said several guards bragged in a Guantanamo club about beating prisoners. Cerveny visited the US base in Cuba last month and said she spent an hour with the guards.

Chilling effect

The army colonel is the sole investigating officer but can receive administrative help from the military Joint Task Force that runs the detention camps, said US Southern Command spokesman Jose Ruiz.

"He is going to interview all the people he needs to interview in order to establish the facts surrounding the allegations," Ruiz said.

The investigating officer has roughly 30 days to submit his findings to the commander of the US Southern Command, which oversees the detention centre in southeastern Cuba, Ruiz said. The investigator will not be able to interview anyone senior to his rank, Ruiz said, adding that the only person senior to a colonel who is stationed at the detention center is its commander, Navy Rear Admiral Harry Harris.

Vokey and Cerveny have been ordered by the US Marine Corps not to speak with the press about their allegations, according to a Saturday statement from the US Marines public affairs department.

The gag order will likely discourage other military defence lawyers from bringing new allegations of abuse to light, said Muneer Ahmad, a civilian lawyer who assists in the defence of Omar Khadr, a Canadian detainee whose military counsel is Vokey.

"It is, in my opinion, likely to have a chilling effect on other military defence lawyers," Ahmad, an American University law professor, said in an e-mail.

Roughly 450 detainees at Guantanamo Bay are being held at Guantanamo on suspicion of links to al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

- AP