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 members of the family of detainees amid an absence of transparency concerning the standing of these affected.
“As I perceive it, many detainees in each camps have contracted COVID inside the final couple of weeks, though the US authorities won’t verify 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 few of the camp’s guards have been additionally in poor health.
“It’s a large outbreak,” one other supply conversant in the scenario 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 “battle on terror” within the wake of the September 11, 2011 assaults, presently has some 34 detainees break 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 have been accessible, we have been instructed to file a discovery request,” Pradhan mentioned.
A discovery request is the formal means of exchanging info between authorized events concerning the witnesses and proof to be offered 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 have been transferred to Guantanamo in 2006 and 2007 after being held at abroad CIA amenities referred to as “black websites”, the place they have been subjected to torture together with beatings, waterboarding and sexual assault.
Lots 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 current well being points.
Baluchi, a 45-year-old Pakistani nationwide, is accused of serving to to facilitate the 9/11 assaults and appearing as a monetary courier for al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, though he’s nonetheless awaiting trial at a army court docket at Guantanamo.
“Ammar already suffers from mind injury, a number of traumatic mind accidents (TBIs) and sleep disturbances (incapability to sleep for greater than a few hours at a time) from his torture in CIA custody from 2003 to 2006,” Pradhan mentioned.
“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’ve got 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 previous males and a few of them have comorbidities,” a supply conversant in the format of the camps instructed Al Jazeera, including that COVID-19 might simply unfold on the web site because of the comparatively relaxed environment in recent times, significantly 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 mentioned.
Even the Camp 5 detainees have some freedom of motion throughout the day. They’ll transfer between blocks and spend time in communal prayer and meals areas the place they’ll mingle.
One in all 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 individuals lifeless and an extra 200 injured when a number of bombs ripped via a preferred 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 likely 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 keeping 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 mentioned.
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’s not presently potential to supply complicated 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 impartial torture rehabilitation and different medical specialists to judge the detainees and supply remedy,” she added.
One other supply conversant in the army base added that whereas the jail has some restricted medical tools corresponding to ventilators, which have been used when performing rudimentary surgical procedure previously, it doesn’t have extra subtle tools that will be wanted if detainees have been to turn into critically in poor health with diseases together with COVID-19.
Legally, worldwide protections such because the Geneva Conventions assure the precise to medical look after all prisoners. Nonetheless, the US authorities has routinely mentioned detainees at Guantanamo Bay should not topic to such protections as they’re thought of “enemy combatants” somewhat than prisoners.
Human rights teams have condemned the absence of medical care at Guantanamo, significantly in mild of the newest COVID-19 outbreak.
“The latest reviews about Guantanamo detainees contracting COVID spotlight our ongoing issues concerning 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 situations of detainees receiving substandard care over time, partly because of the US Congress’s refusal to permit any of them to journey to the US.
“The entire Guantanamo scenario – Muslim males held for many years with out cost or trial, with insufficient healthcare or remedy for the trauma a lot 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.