Bradley Manning case sparks UN criticism of US government
UN torture
representative suggests White House stalling his private meeting with
American soldier
Ewen MacAskill in Washington
A senior
United Nations representative on
torture, Juan Mendez, issued a rare reprimand to the US government
on Monday for failing to allow him to meet in private
Bradley Manning, the American soldier accused of being the
WikiLeaks source and held in a military prison. It is the kind of
censure the UN normally reserves for authoritarian regimes around the
world. Mendez,
the UN special rapporteur on torture, said: "I am deeply disappointed
and frustrated by the prevarication of the US government with regard to
my attempts to visit Mr Manning."
Manning's supporters claim that the US is being vindictive in its
treatment of Manning, who is held at the marine base at Quantico,
Virginia, in conditions they describe as inhumane. Mendez
told the Guardian: "I am acting on a complaint that the regimen of this
detainee amounts to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or torture …
until I have all the evidence in front of me, I cannot say whether he
has been treated inhumanely." Mendez
said the vast majority of states allowed for visits to detainees without
conditions. But the US department of defence would not allow him to make
an "official" visit, only a "private" one. An official visit would mean
he meets Manning without a guard. A private visit means with a guard.
Also, anything the prisoner says could be used in a court-martial. Mendez
said his mandate was to conduct unmonitored visits. He had met
representatives from the state department and the Pentagon on Friday and
learned their decision over the weekend. Although
he was prepared to meet Manning with a guard present, he would continue
to press for an unmonitored visit. "I am
insisting the US government lets me see him without witnesses. I am
asking [the US government] to reconsider," Mendez said. Colonel
Dave Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, said: "We cannot, under Quantico brig
practice, guarantee the UN special rapporteur an unmonitored visit. At
Quantico, such a guarantee is only reserved for attorney-client
communications. As in the federal prison system, and for security
reasons, the department of defence does not guarantee unmonitored
communications with confinees except for privileged communications or in
other special circumstances not present here." He added
that there was a lot of misinformation about Manning and insisted he was
not in solitary confinement. "There
is no such thing at Quantico. PFC Manning is in maximum security, which
does not affect the type of cell he is in. He occupies the same type of
single-occupancy cell that a medium security confinee at Quantico would
occupy, in the same general area of the brig that a medium security
confinee may occupy. Except for a brief period about a month ago, and
for reasons of Manning's own physical safety, Manning does not sleep
naked. Nor is Manning awakened every five minutes by brig personnel.
These facts are simply not true. "Manning is allowed to receive visitors, receive and send mail, watch TV, exercise outside his cell, and visit with doctors and mental health providers. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/11/bradley-manning-juan-mendez-torture?INTCMP=SRCH |