01/05/2007
CAGEPRISONERS PRESS RELEASE
1st May 2007
Cageprisoner's report, Inside Africa's War on Terror, released today reveals the extent of detentions that have been taking place in the Horn of Africa.
The rendition of detainees between Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia already exposed through the work of human rights organisations has only served to show part of the problem that is taking place in the region.
According to spokesman for Cageprisoners and former Guantanamo Bay detainee, Moazzam Begg,
"Cageprisoners is alarmed by Guantánamo-style prisons being set up and utilised in the Horn of Africa after documenting a series of abductions in which men, women and even children were unlawfully detained. The seizure of civilians, the usage of converted metal shipping containers as holding cells and summary court hearings used to charge those rendered to Ethiopia as "illegal combatants" bears particular resonance with the notorious "processes" established and practiced in Guantánamo Bay.²
What is particularly harrowing about these detentions though, is the extent to which there has been foreign involvement in the detention and interrogation process, but further in the torture that has taken place. Released detainee, Safia Benaouda states,
"...the torture was clearly being planned and orchestrated by the Americans or other western interrogators, as it was only them who were doing any of the interrogations. It was only westerners who were interrogating me while I was in Ethiopia and according to all the info i got from others who were interrogated, it was only westerners interrogating them too, never Ethiopian.²
Any semblance of international humanitarian law and human rights law has been refused to those that have been detained and again the War on Terror has placed detention without due process above protecting the rights of men, women and children.
The full report can be read at:
http://www.cageprisoners.com/downloads/InsideAfrica_sWaronTerror.pdf
Cage Prisoners is a human rights organisation that exists solely to raise awareness of the plight of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and other detainees held as part of the War on Terror. We aim to give a voice to the voiceless.
Contact: Asim Qureshi
Email: asim.q@cageprisoners.com
Number: 0044 (0) 7973264197
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