Russia abused freed Guantanamo inmates: RG

Moscow, March 29: Former Russian Guantanamo Bay inmates were beaten and abused after the United States handed them over to Russia in 2004, Human Rights Watch said today.

The New York-based human rights group said their findings puncture the US policy of handing over former detainees under ''diplomatic assurances'' to their native countries where they may risk further abuse.

''What happened to the former detainees is pretty standard for a lot of suspects in police custody in Russia,'' Carroll Bogert, associate director at Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

''But that's just the point. The US government knew these men would likely be tortured and sent them back to Russia anyway.'' Russian officials were not immediately available for comment.

US forces detained the seven Russians in Afghanistan in 2002 and they spent the next two years in the US Guantanamo Bay prison on Cuba.

In its 43-page report, Human Rights Watch interviewed three of the former inmates and talked to lawyers and families of all seven men.

''Kicked On Their Wounds''

One of the men said they were abused as soon as they touched down in Russia.

''At the airport they dragged us down the runway by our feet through the snow and kicked us,'' Airat Vakhitov told Human Rights Watch.

''When they brought us on the plane (for an onward journey) they kicked us again. They asked us who was wounded and whoever said they were wounded got kicked on their wounds.'' The report describes how the seven men were held in custody for another three months without being abused but were then either re-arrested shortly after their release on fresh charges or harassed.

One of the men, Ravil Gumarov, told how he was arrested by Russian police for a local gas explosion in the Russian republic of Tartarstan in 2005.

Gumarov said he was beaten in custody, deprived of sleep and shackled to a cage with his hands above his head until he confessed.

Human Rights Watch said they wanted to use their report to highlight what they say are the inadequacies of the system whereby a country hands back prisoners to another country accused of human rights abuses under assurances the detainees will be given fair and humane treatment.

''The Russian experience shows why 'diplomatic assurances' simply don't work,'' Bogert said. ''Governments with records of torture don't suddenly change their behaviour because the US government claims to have extracted some kind of assurance from them.'' Human Rights Watch said Austria, Canada, Georgia, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Turkey, Britain and the US had all handed over prisoners on diplomatic assurances.

It said those countries with a poor human rights record which had received prisoners included: China, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Russia, Syria, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Yemen.

Reuters