Is An American Prisoner Better Off Than An African Mayor?
- Category: Peering Eye
- Date 26-02-2006
- 355 views
“I would rather be in prison in America than in the Mayor’s office in Kampala,” supporters of the Mayor of Kampala city Al Hajj Nasser Ntege Ssebagala habitually told his critics who derided him and celebrated for his ordeal. Al Hajj Ssebagala had been arrested for ushering false cheques and sentenced to a one-year prison term in America. He lost his mayor-ship and is now campaigning to regain it.
To understand a man, you must step into his shoes and walk around in them. Many people would wish to leave Tanzania (Africa) and stay in Britain or America to enjoy better living standards and greater freedom. But would personally prefer being an American prisoner to being a Tanzanian free man?
America has picked prisoner from around 40 countries: Afghanistan, Eastern Europe and Africa. Since 2002 about six hundred people have been held in a detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, which is housed on a naval base in Cuba. Each of the prisoners’ cells is said to have a basic toilet and a sink, a mattress, a towel, and a copy of the Koran.
The critical issue however is that there is a sense of growing impunity in America’s execution of its war on terror. The Guantanamo Bay has come under intense scrutiny since it began to receive foreign detainees, with the US blamed for holding inmates without trial and for the alleged mistreatment of these jailbirds.
According to the emerging reports, an American prisoner is not necessary a happy person. The New York Times recently indicated that some prisoners are strangled; seriously beaten and burning cigarettes are placed into their ears. Also, the United Nations has pointed out other allegations whereby prisoners on hunger strikes are forced to eat through nasal tubes whereas interrogation techniques include prolonged solitary confinement and exposure to extreme temperatures, noise and light. The UN also says that many of the inmates have had mental breakdowns.
The US government has been accused of eroding the rule of international law. In a report in May 2005, the human rights group Amnesty International called for the Guantanamo Bay to be shut down. Presently, he United Nations human rights investigators have also called for the camp's immediate closure. The UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has added his voice to others, urging that America must close the camp "as soon as is possible".
South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu has joined in the growing chorus of condemnation of America's Guantanamo Bay prison camp. Tutu described the detention camp as a stain on the character of the United States, a superpower and a democracy. He said he was alarmed that arguments used by the South African apartheid regime are now being used to justify anti-terror measures.
Well, some suspects would be released whenever the US deems them guiltless, but that would not appease the Archbishop either, "Are you able to restore to those people the time when their freedom was denied them? If you have evidence for goodness sake produce it in a court of law," he added. "Someone who preaches human rights and civil liberties but who won't stick to them when our own security is tested. It's been terrible."
Military officials complain that those who call for the camp's closure fail to see the bigger picture because many of the detainees are still dangerous and would attack the US if released. If they are real terrorists, they would harm anyone, American or non-American.
It is important to note however that being the democracy that it is, the US has no choice but to act fairly on captives. The world must not be governed on the basis of speculation and to become so smug as to rationalise injustice. The third world is particularly vulnerable to terrorism and would not independently contain it if the terrorist focused on Africa, for example.
The 1998 terrorist bombing in Dar es Salaam is essentially a sad reminder. Even then, none of us would surely take pleasure in the Guantanamo nightmare. Let the camp be closed forthwith.
By Venansio Ahabwe
Source: Peering Eye, Sunday Citizen