‘Secrecy the priority’: Guantanamo battling COVID outbreak

Medan, Indonesia – A reported outbreak of COVID-19 at america’s Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp in Cuba is inflicting concern for the authorized counsel and relations of detainees amid a scarcity of transparency in regards to the standing of these affected.

“As I perceive it, many detainees in each camps have contracted COVID throughout the final couple of weeks, though the US authorities won’t affirm numbers,” Alka Pradhan, a global human rights lawyer who represents one of many detainees at Guantanamo, instructed Al Jazeera.

She added it was not clear how the virus was launched to the camps and that a number of the camp’s guards had been additionally unwell.

“It’s an enormous outbreak,” one other supply acquainted with the state of affairs and talking on situation of anonymity instructed Al Jazeera. “That is probably the most extreme outbreak within the detainee inhabitants within the camp itself ever and it’s the first time that one thing like this has occurred on this scale.”

“As Guantanamo is so politically delicate, the US authorities needs to be making dealing with it a precedence.”

The extremely secretive US-run jail in Cuba, which opened as a part of the so-called “warfare on terror” within the wake of the September 11, 2011 assaults, at the moment has some 34 detainees cut up throughout two camps.

The outbreak is assumed to have been gathering momentum since final month.

“It took days for the federal government to inform any of the legal professionals that their purchasers had examined constructive and after we requested about what remedy choices had been obtainable, we had been instructed to file a discovery request,” Pradhan stated.

A discovery request is the formal strategy of exchanging data between authorized events in regards to the witnesses and proof to be introduced at trial.

“Secrecy is the precedence, not care.”

Ageing inhabitants

Whereas Guantanamo Bay as soon as held some 780 prisoners, it now operates solely Camp 5 and Camp 6 – the primary for so-called “excessive worth” detainees and the second for these designated “low worth”.

“Excessive-value” inmates are those that had been transferred to Guantanamo in 2006 and 2007 after being held at abroad CIA services referred to as “black websites”, the place they had been subjected to torture together with beatings, waterboarding and sexual assault.

Most of the males are affected by well being circumstances because of their remedy and extended detention.

Pradhan instructed Al Jazeera that her shopper, Ammar al Baluchi, examined constructive for COVID-19 two weeks in the past at Camp 5 and that his situation was worrying due to his present well being points.

Baluchi, a 45-year-old Pakistani nationwide, is accused of serving to to facilitate the 9/11 assaults and performing as a monetary courier for al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, though he’s nonetheless awaiting trial at a navy courtroom at Guantanamo.

“Ammar already suffers from mind injury, a number of traumatic mind accidents (TBIs) and sleep disturbances (lack of ability to sleep for greater than a few hours at a time) from his torture in CIA custody from 2003 to 2006,” Pradhan stated.

“He’s additionally in cognitive decline because of his untreated TBIs. The added COVID signs of mind fog and excessive fatigue have been extraordinarily worrisome, and we now have requested about his remedy within the hopes that he won’t endure from lengthy COVID.”

Pradhan added that Baluchi is vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19 however it’s thought that another detainees on the facility have refused the vaccine as a result of they don’t belief the authorities.

“These are outdated males and a few of them have comorbidities,” a supply acquainted with the structure of the camps instructed Al Jazeera, including that COVID-19 may simply unfold on the website as a result of comparatively relaxed ambiance lately, notably at Camp 6 that homes the detainees who didn’t arrive at Guantanamo by way of the CIA websites.

“The camp is made up of 4 atriums and a collective dwelling house and homes round 20 prisoners. It’s like a medium-security jail,” the supply stated.

Even the Camp 5 detainees have some freedom of motion through the day. They’ll transfer between blocks and spend time in communal prayer and meals areas the place they’ll mingle.

One among them is Indonesian nationwide Encep Nurjaman, who’s extra broadly referred to as Hambali.

The 58-year-old is accused of getting masterminded the Bali Bombings in 2002, which left greater than 200 folks lifeless and an extra 200 injured when a number of bombs ripped by way of a well-liked nightlife space on the island of Bali in Indonesia. Hambali was arrested in Thailand in 2003 and charged final 12 months. His trial has but to begin.

It’s believed that Hambali is without doubt one of the detainees who has contracted COVID-19 because of the latest outbreak.

When contacted by Al Jazeera, Hambali’s brother Gun Gun declined to touch upon the present standing of his brother’s well being.

Medical care ‘a joke’

In accordance with lawyer Pradhan, the COVID-19 outbreak highlights the veil of secrecy and incompetence that has lengthy surrounded medical points on the jail.

“Medical care is a joke at Guantanamo, and authorized specialists have discovered that the US authorities is actively committing torture by withholding correct medical care to the detainees,” she stated.

She says the US authorities prioritises the secrecy of its torture programme by refusing to take affected person histories and that the dearth of those histories makes it troublesome for detainees to be given complete medical care.

“It isn’t at the moment potential to offer advanced medical or psychological care at Guantanamo. The US authorities must acknowledge that they’ve an ageing inhabitants of torture victims who want correct care and permit for unbiased torture rehabilitation and different medical specialists to guage the detainees and supply remedy,” she added.

One other supply acquainted with the navy base added that whereas the jail has some restricted medical gear similar to ventilators, which have been used when performing rudimentary surgical procedure previously, it doesn’t have extra refined gear that may be wanted if detainees had been to grow to be severely unwell with diseases together with COVID-19.

Legally, worldwide protections such because the Geneva Conventions assure the appropriate to medical look after all prisoners. Nonetheless, the US authorities has routinely stated detainees at Guantanamo Bay usually are not topic to such protections as they’re thought of “enemy combatants” quite than prisoners.

Human rights teams have condemned the absence of medical care at Guantanamo, notably in gentle of the newest COVID-19 outbreak.

“The latest experiences about Guantanamo detainees contracting COVID spotlight our ongoing issues in regards to the secrecy surrounding their circumstances of detention and the standard of the healthcare they’re receiving,” Daphne Eviatar, Amnesty Worldwide’s US director of Safety with Human Rights, instructed Al Jazeera.

She added that there have been many cases of detainees receiving substandard care through the years, partly as a result of US Congress’s refusal to permit any of them to journey to the US.

“The entire Guantanamo state of affairs – Muslim males held for many years with out cost or trial, with insufficient healthcare or remedy for the trauma lots of them endured having been tortured by US brokers – is appalling and should come to an finish.”

The Guantanamo authorities didn’t reply to a request for remark.