Tram Town
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
| Category: Gulag Over at The New Republic, David Bosco takes issue (username: digital, password: digital worked for me) with Amnesty International's description of Guantánamo as "the gulag of our time." Amongst the comparisons: Individuals Detained: Gulag: Approximately 20 million passed through the Gulag. The population at any one time was generally around two million. Guantánamo: 750 prisoners have passed through the camp. The current population is about 520. Number of Camps: Gulag: 476 separate camp complexes comprising thousands of individual camps. By the end of the 1930s, camps were located in each of the Soviet Union's twelve time zones. Guantánamo: Five small camps on the U.S. military base in Cuba. Red Cross Visits Gulag: None that I could find. Guantánamo: Regular visits since January 2002. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has reportedly complained to the U.S. government about several aspects of prisoner treatment, including occasional beatings and other interrogation tactics. Per its standard practice, the ICRC does not make its complaints public. Deaths as a Result of Poor Treatment Gulag: At least two to three million. [detail ommitted] Guantánamo: No reports of prisoner deaths. He concludes thus: The detention center at Guantánamo is legally dubious and has been a public relations disaster for the United States. The treatment of certain prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan has been far worse. Amnesty's president Irene Kahn says that these practices are "undermining human rights in a dramatic way." Her outrage is valuable and essential. If only she could express it without employing obscene moral parallels."If only she could express it without employing obscene moral parallels": that tells the Amnesty International story in one sentence for me. |
