Kamalludin Kasimbekov

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Kamalludin Kasimbekov is a citizen of Uzbekistan, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.^[1] Kasimbekov's Guantanamo detainee ID number is 675. The Department of Defense reports that Kasimbekov was born on November 9, 1977, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

[edit] Combatant Status Review Tribunal

Combatant Status Review Tribunals were held in a trailer the size of a large RV. The captive sat on a plastic garden chair, with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.^[2][3] Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed.^[4]

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Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct a competent tribunal to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant.

Kasimbekov chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal.^[5]

[edit] Allegations

The allegations Kasimbekov faced during his Tribunal were:

a. -- The general summary of the allegations that establish an association with terrorism were missing from the transcript. --

1. -- missing from the transcript --
2. -- missing from the transcript --
3. The Detainee received weapons training on the AK-47 rifle, rocket-propelled grenade launcher, and PK machine gun.
4. -- missing from the transcript --
5. -- missing from the transcript --
6. The Detainee met with a particular individual in Kabul, to whom he gave his passport.

[edit] Evidence request

Kasimbekov requested the testimony of a witness. He requested his passport to be presented to his Tribunal. Kasimbekov was told that the Department of Defense had requested help, through diplomatic channels, but had got no response.

Kasimbekov was told that since diplomatic channels had failed his witness's testimony, and his passport, would be ruled "not reasonably available".

[edit] Written Statement

Kasimbekov presented his Tribunal with a statement. The translation into English was two pages long.

In August 1999 he agreed to loan his car to his friend, Abdurouf. When his friend returned. He was late, seemed agitated. Unbeknown to him Abdurouf had borrowed Kasimbekov’s car to transport two men who were wanted by the Police. The Police stopped him, and asked for his license and registration. He gave the policeman Kasimbekov’s documents. When the policeman realized that the documents weren’t Abdurouf’s Abdurouf’s friends panicked and killed the policeman. Abdurouf had left Kasimbekov’s license and registration with the dead policeman.

Abdurouf apologized and suggested that since Kasimbekov still had his “military ID”, the two of them should go to Kazakhstan. Kasimbekov said he was forced, by circumstances, to flee Uzbekistan for Kazakhstan.

Kasimbekov said when he and Abdurouf had been in Kazakhstan for a week a friend of Abdurouf’s suggested he knew some people with whom they could go hide out.

The place where Abdurouf’s friend suggested they hide out was an armed camp of opposition fighters in Tajikistan.

Kasimbekov was separated from his friend Abdurouf at the camp. During his first week there he received a minimal amount of marksmanship training on an AK-47. He said he only shot 10 practice bullets. One night, after that first week he and other recruits from that camp were driven to near a mountain pass, where they hiked, on foot, into Kyrgyzstan.

Kasimbekov said the trail they were being lead on was coming close to the border with Uzbekistan. He said he reported having health problems, and was left behind. He said he then spent seven months ^[sic] in one of the opposition group’s hospitals. At this point trucks came and drove a group of men to the border of Afghanistan. At the border the Tajik government used Russian helicopters to fly them into Afghanistan,

Kaximbekov said he eventually ended up working in a garage, run by his Uzbek opposition group. He was assigned a job as an ambulance driver. After some months working in this garage he missed his family, and asked his commander for the return of his military ID, and some pay, so he could return home. After repeating this request two more times, he borrowed $80 money from some friends, and ran away. He was caught, and jailed, for six months. He was released, on September 16, 2001, on condition he "help in battle". On the front line, near Kunduz ^[sic] , he spent about a month performing "household duties".

Then, because of losses from, due to the American bombing campaign, he was issued an AK-47, shortly before his group retreated. He took that opportunity to go AWOL again, and surrendered himself, and his weapon, to Abdul Mumin the local Northern Alliance commander. Kasimbekov pointed out that he had never fired a single bullet from his rifle.

[edit] Verbal statement

After the Tribunal members read the translation of his statement, Kasimbekov apologized that it wasn't more complete, but he did his best in the limited time he had available. He wanted to add that, contrary to the third allegations in the summary of evidence, he was only trained on the AK-47. While he saw machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers he was never shown how to use them.

He also tried to correct the sixth allegation, that he gave his passport to a man in Kabul. He didn't give his passport to a man in Kabul. He requested his boss return his military ID, which he had been made to surrender in 1999, when he was first recruited by the Uzbek rebels.

Finally, he expressed concern that the Tribunal was "a fake". He said he didn't ever do anything that should cause him to be classified as an "enemy combatant".

He said that one of the reasons he agreed to join the rebel group was that the Uzbek authorities had imprisoned his brother based on false allegations. When an Uzbek security delegation had visited Guantanamo to interrogate the Uzbek detainees they confronted him with false allegations, and he saw them recording false confessions in their notes from his interrogation. He requested that, if the Tribunal determined he was not an enemy combatant he not be returned to Uzbekistan, because it wouldn't be safe for him.

[edit] Response to questioning

Kasimbekov's Personal Representative's asked him to explain to the Tribunal in more detail about his military ID.

Kasimbekov explained, that in 1999 at least, there was loose border control between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. One didn't need a passport to cross the border, Other kinds of identification would allow one to cross the border, including one's military ID. He explained that the rebels wanted him to surrender his ID so he couldn't return home without permission.

Kasimbekov was asked why he request Commander ########### as a witness. His witness's name was redacted. It was the name of the Northern Alliance commander he had surrendered to -- which was not redacted -- Abdul Mumin.

Kasimbekov said he just wanted Mumin to confirm that he surrendered voluntarily, he turned himself in. He explained that he figured that surrendering was the best chance he had of returning home.

He agreed to help the rebels fight in order to get out of jail. He said that the jail was in a basement, and the conditions there were very hard.

Kasimbekov asked to add another important detail. He told his Tribunal that during his interrogations he had never had a competent translator.

Kasimbekov confirmed that he had served a hitch in the Uzbek military.

Kasimbekov was asked what duties he performed in the military.

When Kasimbekov was asked if he believed he was wanted for the policemen’s murder, he confirmed that when the representative from Uzbekistan came to Guantanamo they did accuse him of the murder -- and other shocking accusations.

He surrendered four or five days before Ramadan (ie mid to late October 2001).

[edit] References

1. ^ list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006
2. ^ Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirror
3. ^ Inside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004
4. ^ Annual Administrative Review Boards for Enemy Combatants Held at Guantanamo Attributable to Senior Defense Officials. United States Department of Defense (March 6, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-22.
5. ^ Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Kamalludin Kasimbekov's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 36-45