The disappeared
On 7 June 2007, Amnesty International released a report into "off the record" detention in America's "war on terror".
The existence of a secret detention system was acknowledged by President Bush in September 2006. However the US government has never disclosed the numbers of people subject to this system. Secret detention allows a person to be held at an undisclosed location, for undisclosed duration, so no one can find out what has happened to them. Because, with the exception of a handful of detainees, the US government has not disclosed who is secretly detained, these people simply vanish. Their families are not told where they are or what was done to them.
Research by human rights groups, now published by Amnesty International, reveals at least 39 people who have been disappeared by the US government and whose fate or whereabouts remain unknown. It is however known that a number of these "disappeared" have been tortured by various methods including beatings resulting in permanent incapacitation, broken limbs and loud music played in their cells for months without a break. The "disappeared" include children. There are reports that at least two young children have been tortured by denial of food and water and putting insects and various creatures on their bodies to frighten them.
Such conduct violates the ICCPR and the Torture Convention, but lets ask - are we bothered by it? Does it make our blood boil that the country which claims to be "the land of the free" would engage is such manifest abuses of human rights? Or do we not care because the "disappeared" are "the worst of the worst" of terrorists (or at least so the US government claims)?
As to the "worst of the worst" point, the Amnesty Report reveals that the "disappeared" include low level terror suspects as well as families (including children) of the suspects. How a 7-year old child can be considered the "worst of the worst" is unclear. But lets ignore that. Lets assume that the "disappeared" are in fact dangerous terrorists (we have to assume because, as none of them have been given a fair trial, we'll never know for sure).
Is disappearance, indefinite secret detention and torture justified because America is fighting those who threaten to destroy "our way of life"? Is it ok because the suspects are alleged terrorists as opposed to your ordinary everyday criminals? Is such conduct acceptable against people who violently oppose "our values" and "our laws" and "our freedoms"?
I cannot help thinking that, if this is what the "war on terror" is about, then we have already lost. In the rush to "defend its way of life" America has sacrificed the very values and principles it claimed to protect. By violating key human rights and civil rights obligations America has done more to destroy its own freedoms, its own values and its own laws than any terror group could have hoped to achieve. One cannot fight an enemy by becoming that enemy, one cannot defend one's values by engaging in the very conduct that those values condemn.
It is easy to respect human rights of those we love, it is harder to respect the human rights of those we hate or those we fear. That is the ultimate test of our commitment to our core values and it is a test that America has failed. It is tempting to make exceptions for one's enemies. They may even appear to be justified, notwithstanding the fact that no derogation is permitted from prohibition on torture, no matter what the circumstances.
But remember this - if exceptions are permitted, someone would define them. Someone would need to say that certain people are not "human" for the purposes of enjoying human rights protection. That definition will be made by a person or a country with the power to do so, it will be made according to its own political agenda. For America it might be terror suspects. For Hitler it was six million Jews. For Pinochet it was thousands of left-wing sympathisers. For the terrorists it is those who don't subscribe to their view of the world.
If you are tempted to make exceptions of your enemies, you can rest assured that someday, someone will be able to make you the exception.
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