Hiding them away from the world at Gitmo, or anywhere else, without charging them, is just plain wrong
LAHORE: This is with reference to the article “A Pakistani writes from inside Guantanamo” by Ahmed Rabbani (December 11). The US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay stands as a challenge to the entire world. The United States of America is celebrated as a country where no one is imprisoned without charge and where everyone has the right to defend themselves in a fair and impartial trial. Then why is the American state maintaining this shady facility?
Majority of prisoners at the facility have not been provided with the opportunity to prove their innocence. They were not told why they were brought to Cuba. They were never tried in open courts. It is a welcome change that the perspective of one such prisoner was brought to public attention through your newspaper. I believe that Guantanamo Bay holds evil men as well as innocent ones. I also believe that only a fair hearing can separate the good from the bad.
The objective of my letter is to laud your newspaper for publishing that candid account. Mr Rabbani’s article showed me the human face of the war on terror. He could have been my father or somebody else’s. I hope and pray that Mr Rabbani and others like him, irrespective of their nationalities, are handed the freedom they pine for. There are two entities in this war on terror which have got a bad name through their activities: the US and the Taliban. America claims to fight the Taliban’s abuse of human rights. However, America has shown the world that it does not respect those rights either. It has ignored, and even broken, international law.
Many of the Guantanamo detainees were taken from their families and homelands, many from their beds at night, brought half way around the world, tortured and held in secret, without charge or trial. I continue to believe that terrorists should receive public trials before they are locked up. Hiding them away from the world at Gitmo, or anywhere else, without charging them, is just plain wrong. It makes America look like a lawless thug state and tarnishes the nation’s image of being a beacon of justice in the world. Such stories raise fundamental questions about America’s willingness to abide by basic human rights and adhere to the rule of law.
Salma Tahir
Published in The Express Tribune, December 13th, 2014.
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