- U.S. authorities deliberately trampled constitutional
rights after Sept. 11 in a crackdown that saw immigrants jailed without
cause, tried in secret and, in some cases, physically abused, a leading
human-rights group has charged.
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- In a report to be released today, Human Rights Watch
accuses President George W. Bush's government of displaying "a stunning
disregard for the democratic principles of public transparency and accountability"
in its response to the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
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- It says authorities rounded up at least 1,200 people
because of their religion or ethnic background, jailed them on immigration
charges to deny them rights normally enjoyed by accused persons, and held
many in harsh isolation conditions.
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- In court documents or interviews with the group's researchers,
several detainees said they were beaten by interrogators or by fellow inmates
acting with apparent impunity, the report says. Others told of humiliating
treatment and verbal abuse.
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- The 99-page report, titled Presumption of Guilt, says
the government has violated the same principles of freedom that Mr. Bush
said were attacked by hijackers who flew airplanes into the World Trade
Center and Pentagon.
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- "The country has witnessed a persistent, deliberate
and unwarranted erosion of basic rights against abusive governmental power,"
it adds.
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- Despite the massive dragnet that mainly targeted Muslim,
South Asian and Middle Eastern men, none of those detained after Sept.
11 has been charged with a terrorism-related offence.
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- The report says it is difficult to document cases of
physical abuse because there is little independent access to detainees.
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- But it cites a Roman Catholic citizen of the Ivory Coast,
Tony Oulai, who told a Human Rights Watch researcher he was repeatedly
beaten on Sept. 17 in a Florida detention centre to the point where he
was "begging for my life" and bleeding from the nose, mouth and
ears.
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- A Pakistan-born, legal U.S. resident charged with larceny,
Qaiser Rafiq, told the group he was beaten three times by inmates in a
Connecticut jail after a local newspaper article said he was suspected
of involvement in terrorism. Guards saw the beatings but took no action,
he said.
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- Human Rights Watch, a private New York-based monitor
of rights guaranteed in domestic and international law, called on authorities
to release the names of all detainees and to stop targeting suspects solely
because of racial origin.
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- The group's U.S. advocacy director, Wendy Patten, said
in an interview that authorities used immigration charges to make an "end
run" around the safeguards and court scrutiny ensured in criminal
cases.
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- By holding suspects on immigration charges, authorities
avoided having to give reasons for arresting suspects, bring them before
a judge within 48 hours and provide court-appointed lawyers.
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- According to government figures, 752 of those detained
in the United States after Sept. 11 were eventually charged with immigration
violations and most of those have been deported. But some spent weeks in
jail before being freed.
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- The report takes a shot at the official contention that
revealing the names of detainees would allow terrorist groups to chart
the progress of investigations. Any illegal group would find out quickly
if one of its members were arrested, it says, also noting that U.S. authorities
freely provided information to the embassies of countries whose citizens
were arrested.
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- Thursday, August 15, 2002 Print Edition, Page A12
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- http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/
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