Rest In Peace
It finally happened: a detainee held for nearly five years at Guantanamo Bay has died of natural causes, which in his case means cancer. Abdul Razzaq Hekmati died on December 30, 2007, according to this article in today's NY Times. The fact that it took well over a month for the news of his death to be reported in a major US newspaper is a horribly fitting ending to the story of the last years of Mr. Hekmati's life.
Abdul Razzaq Hekmati was regarded here as a war hero, famous for his resistance to the Russian occupation in the 1980s and later for a daring prison break he organized for three opponents of the Taliban government in 1999.
But in 2003, Mr. Hekmati was arrested by American forces in southern Afghanistan when, senior Afghan officials here contend, he was falsely accused by his enemies of being a Taliban commander himself. For the next five years he was held at the American military base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where he died of cancer on Dec. 30. ...
Afghan officials, and some Americans, complain that detainees are effectively thwarted from calling witnesses in their defense, and that the Afghan government is never consulted on the detention cases, even when it may be able to help. Mr. Hekmati’s case, officials who knew him said, shows that sometimes the Americans do not seem to know whom they are holding. Meanwhile, detainees wait for years with no resolution to their cases. ...
Several high-ranking officials in President Hamid Karzai’s government say Mr. Hekmati’s detention at Guantánamo was a gross mistake. They were mentioned by Mr. Hekmati in his hearings and could have vouched for him. Records from the hearings show that only a cursory effort was made to reach them.
Two of those officials were men Mr. Hekmati had helped escape from the Taliban’s top security prison in Kandahar in 1999: Ismail Khan, now the minister of energy; and Hajji Zaher, a general in the Border Guards. Both men said they appealed to American officials about Mr. Hekmati’s case, but to no effect.
Given Mr. Hekmati's history and given the willingness of two high-ranking Afghan officials to vouch for him, how did the man wind up in Guantanamo Bay in the first place? US officials relied on information provided by two informants.
The first was Sher Mohammed Akhundzada, the post-Taliban governor of Helmand Province, who, Mr. Hekmati said, was directly responsible for his arrest after he reported the governor for corruption and for protecting a number of senior Taliban members in Helmand.
The second was Mohammed Jan, a distant cousin who had falsely denounced him as part of a long-running family feud. “It was one person who gave them wrong information and just because of this wrong person, I am here,” Mr. Hekmati pleaded at his October 2004 review hearing.
Mr. Hekmati did not have a lawyer at his "review hearing." He was not allowed to confront his accusers and not allowed to provide rebuttal witnesses. He was railroaded, and, ultimately, he died in captivity.
For one of the few times in my life, words fail me.
349 days.
Abdul Razzaq Hekmati was regarded here as a war hero, famous for his resistance to the Russian occupation in the 1980s and later for a daring prison break he organized for three opponents of the Taliban government in 1999.
But in 2003, Mr. Hekmati was arrested by American forces in southern Afghanistan when, senior Afghan officials here contend, he was falsely accused by his enemies of being a Taliban commander himself. For the next five years he was held at the American military base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where he died of cancer on Dec. 30. ...
Afghan officials, and some Americans, complain that detainees are effectively thwarted from calling witnesses in their defense, and that the Afghan government is never consulted on the detention cases, even when it may be able to help. Mr. Hekmati’s case, officials who knew him said, shows that sometimes the Americans do not seem to know whom they are holding. Meanwhile, detainees wait for years with no resolution to their cases. ...
Several high-ranking officials in President Hamid Karzai’s government say Mr. Hekmati’s detention at Guantánamo was a gross mistake. They were mentioned by Mr. Hekmati in his hearings and could have vouched for him. Records from the hearings show that only a cursory effort was made to reach them.
Two of those officials were men Mr. Hekmati had helped escape from the Taliban’s top security prison in Kandahar in 1999: Ismail Khan, now the minister of energy; and Hajji Zaher, a general in the Border Guards. Both men said they appealed to American officials about Mr. Hekmati’s case, but to no effect.
Given Mr. Hekmati's history and given the willingness of two high-ranking Afghan officials to vouch for him, how did the man wind up in Guantanamo Bay in the first place? US officials relied on information provided by two informants.
The first was Sher Mohammed Akhundzada, the post-Taliban governor of Helmand Province, who, Mr. Hekmati said, was directly responsible for his arrest after he reported the governor for corruption and for protecting a number of senior Taliban members in Helmand.
The second was Mohammed Jan, a distant cousin who had falsely denounced him as part of a long-running family feud. “It was one person who gave them wrong information and just because of this wrong person, I am here,” Mr. Hekmati pleaded at his October 2004 review hearing.
Mr. Hekmati did not have a lawyer at his "review hearing." He was not allowed to confront his accusers and not allowed to provide rebuttal witnesses. He was railroaded, and, ultimately, he died in captivity.
For one of the few times in my life, words fail me.
349 days.
Labels: Afghanistan, Due Process, Guantanamo Bay
posted by Diane at 4:07 AM
2 Comments:
And another family full of jihadists gets inspiration from Bush's insane policies.
Gitmo has got to go. The Clinton-Obama dual presidency should close it by the end of January 2009.
One of the authors, Andy Worthington, has been banned from the NYT for having a point of view about the bloody place:
Mr. Worthington has written a book, “The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison,” in which he takes the position that Guantánamo is part of what he describes as a cruel and misguided response by the Bush administration to the Sept. 11 attacks. He has also expressed strong criticism of Guantánamo in articles published elsewhere.
The editors were not aware of Mr. Worthington’s outspoken position on Guantánamo. They should have described his contribution to the reporting instead of listing him as co-author, and noted that he had a point of view.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/pageoneplus/corrections.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=worthington&st=nyt&oref=slogin
Imagine having a point of view about Gitmo - shocking stuff.
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