Guards punished for Cuba abuse

Guards punished for Cuba abuse

08may04
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico: One prisoner was pepper-sprayed. Another was hit repeatedly with a clock radio. A third was hosed down by a guard.

Investigators quickly dealt with three formal complaints at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where some 600 men – including Australia's David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib – are being held for alleged ties to the Taliban or to al-Qaida, military officials said.

Action was taken quickly to prevent the scandal plaguing US officials in Iraq, Raoul Duany, a civilian spokesman for US Southern Command in Miami said. The first complaint surfaced in September 2002 when an Army reserve specialist was accused of spraying a detainee with a fire hose.

The detainee allegedly threw food and water at the passing guard . The guard was demoted in rank and reassigned, Mr Duany said. In April 2003, a detainee reportedly assaulted a guard, who then struck the detainee twice on the head with a clock radio.
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http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,9501578%255E912,00.html

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Military Disciplines Guantanamo Bay Jail Guards
Fri May 7, 2004 11:44 AM ET


By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military has punished two Army Reserve soldiers who assaulted prisoners while working as guards at the Guantanamo Bay prison for terrorism suspects, defense officials said on Friday.

A third guard was acquitted in a court-martial of criminal charges after using pepper spray on a prisoner and a fourth guard was given counseling after admitting to kicking the bed of a prisoner inside a hospital at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said Air Force Maj. Michael Shavers, a Pentagon spokesman.

Allegations of misconduct by two other guards were not substantiated, Shavers said. The United States holds at Guantanamo about 600 non-U.S. citizens caught in what President Bush calls the global war on terrorism.

Human rights groups long have criticized the conditions under which prisoners are held at Guantanamo, and the announcement came as the United States faced withering criticism for the abuse and humiliation of prisoners at the hands of American forces in Iraq.

An Army Reserve specialist was charged with dereliction of duty and assault on a detainee following an incident in April 2003, Shavers said. The guard was accused of hitting a prisoner who already had been subdued.
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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5076077