John Yeld
7 September 2007
Cape Town — There are strong parallels between the treatment meted out to murdered Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko and detainees held in the notorious US prison at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere in the so called "war on terror", says a group of more than 260 doctors from around the world.
The group, which includes South Africans, has called for the US doctors involved in treating these prisoners especially those helping to force feed detainees on hunger strike by inserting tubes into their noses to be reported to their professional medical bodies for breaching internationally accepted ethical guidelines.
The doctors express their outrage in a letter that appears in today's edition of The Lancet, the prestigious independent medical journal published in Britain.
The 30th anniversary of Biko's death from severe head injuries is next week.
Biko was savagely beaten by Port Elizabeth security police while being held in solitary confinement and driven naked in the back of a police Land Rover to Pretoria, where he died a lonely death in a police cell.
The Lancet letter is signed by six doctors one of them Dr Trefor Jenkins of the department of human genetics at the University of the Witwatersrand "on behalf of 260 other signatories", who include 21 South Africans, two of them from Cape Town.
The letter says the doctors who treated Biko, Benjamin Tucker and Ivor Lang, had provided grossly inadequate medical treatment and falsified records.
"The regulatory authorities failed to take firm action and it was only grassroots efforts by doctors that led, almost eight years later, to Benjamin Tucker being found guilty of improper and disgraceful conduct and being struck off the medical register; Ivor Lang was found guilty of improper conduct and given a caution and reprimand.
"There are strong parallels between the Biko case and the ongoing role of US military doctors in Guantanamo Bay and the war on terror."
There are strong parallels between the treatment meted out to murdered Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko and detainees held in the notorious US prison at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere in the so called "war on terror", says a group of more than 260 doctors from around the world.
The group, which includes South Africans, has called for the US doctors involved in treating these prisoners especially those helping to force feed detainees on hunger strike by inserting tubes into their noses to be reported to their professional medical bodies for breaching internationally accepted ethical guidelines.
The doctors express their outrage in a letter that appears in today's edition of The Lancet, the prestigious independent medical journal published in Britain.
The 30th anniversary of Biko's death from severe head injuries is next week.
Biko was savagely beaten by Port Elizabeth security police while being held in solitary confinement and driven naked in the back of a police Land Rover to Pretoria, where he died a lonely death in a police cell.
The Lancet letter is signed by six doctors one of them Dr Trefor Jenkins of the department of human genetics at the University of the Witwatersrand "on behalf of 260 other signatories", who include 21 South Africans, two of them from Cape Town.
The letter says the doctors who treated Biko, Benjamin Tucker and Ivor Lang, had provided grossly inadequate medical treatment and falsified records.
"The regulatory authorities failed to take firm action and it was only grassroots efforts by doctors that led, almost eight years later, to Benjamin Tucker being found guilty of improper and disgraceful conduct and being struck off the medical register; Ivor Lang was found guilty of improper conduct and given a caution and reprimand.
"There are strong parallels between the Biko case and the ongoing role of US military doctors in Guantanamo Bay and the war on terror."
Although one of the signatories, neurologist Dr David Nicholl of the City Hospital in Birmingham, UK, had reported the American doctors to several US medical bodies, nothing had happened, the letter said.
"The failure of the US regulatory authorities to act is damaging the reputation of US military medicine.
"No healthcare worker in the war on terror has been charged or convicted of any significant offence, despite numerous instances documented, including fraudulent record-keeping on detainees who have died as a result of failed interrogations.
"We suspect that the doctors in Guantanamo and elsewhere have made the same mistake as Tucker who in 1991 expressed remorse and sought reinstatement, saying 'I had gradually lost the fearless independence and became too closely identified with the organs of state, especially the police'."
The attitude of the US medical establishment appeared to be that of "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil", the doctors' letter concluded.
In London today, the British charity organisation Reprieve has organised a "torture demonstration of force-feeding where prisoners are strapped down for up to 10 hours a day and force-fed through a tube rammed up the nose".
Reprieve, which fights for prisoners held without trial in the name of the war on terror, is calling for urgent independent medical evaluations of the prisoners.
It says today marks eight months that Al Jazeera journalist Sami al Haj has been on a hunger strike and that he has had six years of "abusive" detention without trial in Guantanamo.
It says about 360 prisoners from about 35 countries, none charged with any crime, are being held at the prison camp and that the most recent figures indicate more than 60 are on hunger strike.
Although one of the signatories, neurologist Dr David Nicholl of the City Hospital in Birmingham, UK, had reported the American doctors to several US medical bodies, nothing had happened, the letter said.
"The failure of the US regulatory authorities to act is damaging the reputation of US military medicine.
"No healthcare worker in the war on terror has been charged or convicted of any significant offence, despite numerous instances documented, including fraudulent record-keeping on detainees who have died as a result of failed interrogations.
"We suspect that the doctors in Guantanamo and elsewhere have made the same mistake as Tucker who in 1991 expressed remorse and sought reinstatement, saying 'I had gradually lost the fearless independence and became too closely identified with the organs of state, especially the police'."
The attitude of the US medical establishment appeared to be that of "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil", the doctors' letter concluded.
In London today, the British charity organisation Reprieve has organised a "torture demonstration of force-feeding where prisoners are strapped down for up to 10 hours a day and force-fed through a tube rammed up the nose".
Reprieve, which fights for prisoners held without trial in the name of the war on terror, is calling for urgent independent medical evaluations of the prisoners.
It says today marks eight months that Al Jazeera journalist Sami al Haj has been on a hunger strike and that he has had six years of "abusive" detention without trial in Guantanamo.
It says about 360 prisoners from about 35 countries, none charged with any crime, are being held at the prison camp and that the most recent figures indicate more than 60 are on hunger strike.
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