Camp Iguana

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Camp Iguana is a small compound in the detainment camp complex on the US Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Camp Iguana originally held three child detainees who camp spokesmen then claimed were the only detainees under age 16. It was closed in the winter of 2004 when the three were sent home. When the Department of Defense was forced, by US District Court Justice Jed Rakoff's court order to release the identities of all the detainees, they acknowledged that they had held dozens of minors in the adult portion of the prison.

Main article: minors detained in the global war on terror

In 2005 Camp Iguana was re-opened to hold some of the 38 detainees classified as "no longer enemy combatants" (a term generally understood to refer to those who actually should never have been considered enemy combatants), while they await diplomatic efforts to find them a permanent home in a country other than their country of origin or the United States. They are not being sent home to their country of origin because they are considered likely to be tortured or otherwise harmed there, and are not being allowed into the United States as a matter of U.S. government policy.

Camp Iguana is about a kilometer distant from the main facilities of Camp Delta. Part of the fence that surrounds it is not covered with an opaque barrier, so that the detainees can see the ocean from that area. The detainees have access to video games, a cooler, and a soccer field.

According to an article in the London Sunday Times on June 26, 2003, the living quarters are air-conditioned and consist of "a bedroom with twin beds, a small living room with two armchairs, sofa and television, and a bathroom and kitchenette", with an oven present for aesthetic reasons, and a refrigerator whose fruit and dessert contents are reportedly handled as part of a reward system. A line of black tape on the floor separates the living room and kitchen areas while privacy in the bathroom is handled by a blue curtain.

1 Used to hold child detainees
2 Used to hold those not classified "enemy combatants"
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Used to hold child detainees

Elaine Chao the U.S. Secretary of Labor has spoken about the responsibility to give child soldiers special treatment, to provide help for them to re-integrate into society.^[1]

The Geneva Conventions would have entitled them to a prompt, open tribunal to make a fair determination of their status -- whether they should have been afforded the protection of being civilians, or POWs. If the Americans had applied the Geneva Conventions the children would not have left Afghanistan. The executive branch of the American government claimed at the time that the constitution did not allow for judicial review of the detentions, but the judicial branch over-ruled that claim, and forced the executive branch to conduct reviews.

In a BBC interview a young Afghan teenager named Naqibullah described being treated humanely, and receiving an education, while in Camp Iguana.^[2]

A February 2, 2004 memo, summarizing a meeting between General Geoffrey Miller and his staff and Vincent Cassard of the ICRC, addressed the juveniles mental health:^[3]

"Also, CDR Timby is in the process of finishing the report from the arrival and departure of the juveniles, they showed exceptional progress. 2 of the 3 came here with psychological problems and left here with none.They are looking forward to starting a life again. They were very excited to return home and were in good spirits."

In the spring of 2005 the presence of other detainees who had been held, while children, became known. A New York Times article published on June 13, 2005, said there were at least six other teenagers between the age of 16 and 18 kept within the general population.^[4]

...Further, the ages of the detainees brought to Guantánamo as enemy combatants cannot be determined with certainty, leaving officials to make estimates.

"They don't come with birth certificates," said Col. Brad K. Blackner, the chief public affairs officer at the detention camp. Col. David McWilliams, the chief spokesman for the United States Southern Command in Miami, which runs the prison operation, said that the authorities were fairly confident of their estimates. "We used bone scans in some cases and age was determined by medical evidence as best we could," he said.

However, in at least one case, that of Canadian detainee Omar Khadr 15 when imprisoned, American Intelligence was aware of his age, and identity. A Washington Post article from October 29, 2002 reports:^[5]

One particularly talkative prisoner there is Omar Khadr, who at sixteen is one of the youngest prisoners in U.S. custody. U.S. officials allege that on July 27 he killed a U.S. Special Forces medic, Sgt. Christopher Speer, during a four-hour, house-to-house battle in the village of Ayub Kheyl. The wounded youth was captured, taken to Bagram, treated for his wounds and interrogated.

Khadr was captured on July 27, 2002, and turned sixteen on September 16, 2002. He was fifteen when he was captured. Abdul Salam Mureef Ghaithan Al Shehri, a Saudi citizen who was fifteen when he was captured, celebrated his eighteenth birthday in Guantanamo Bay, in late April 2005.^[6]

In an interview broadcast on the BBC on September 9, 2005, Clive Stafford Smith, a prominent British human rights lawyer who represents thirty seven Guantanamo detainees, reported that the continued incarceration of children at Guantanamo Bay was one of the triggers for the hunger strikes that had taken place during the summer of 2005. Interestingly, it has been determined by the United Nations that to forcefeed the strikers amounts to torture. Smith said that as many as twenty teenagers between the age of 16 and 18 remained imprisoned at Guantanamo, some of whom were being kept in long term solitary confinement.

[edit] Used to hold those not classified "enemy combatants"

In August 25, 2005, the Associated Press distributed a story about Camp Iguana being reopened to hold detainees whose Combatant Status Reviews had concluded that they should not have been determined to have been "enemy combatants".^[7]^[8] The reviews determined that thirty eight of the approximately 540 detainees were not enemy combatants. Some have been repatriated. Some of the detainees are exiles from countries that torture dissidents, and face torture if the United States were to send them home. As their status has been determined, the United States would be justified in sending them back to their home countries, however the Bush Administration has said that they decided the most humane thing to do is to allow the detainees to continue living at Camp Iguana where they are not being tortured and are, in fact, living better than most from their home countries.

Some detainees who were determined not to be enemy combatants were kept at Camp Iguana, while others including Sami Al Laithi continued to be detained back in Camp Delta.

On Friday May 5, 2006 five Uighurs who had been held in Camp Iguana were transported to a refugee center in Albania just prior to a review of their writs of habeas corpus which was scheduled to be conducted the following Monday.^[9]^[10] These five were among a total of 15 Uighurs who were reported to have been determined not to have been "enemy combatants" despite continuing to be held at Guantanamo incarceration facilities.^[11]

In a telephone interview, Abu Baker Qassim, one of the Uighurs sent to Albania, said Camp Iguana had held nine innocent detainees before their departure. The other four innocent detainees had been a Russian, an Algerian, a Libyan, and a man who had been born in Saudi Arabia to Uighur exiles.