Chronicle on Cuba - February 2006

Terrorism

February 5: Amnesty International called for closing the US Guantanamo prison for terror suspects and the release of nine British residents the rights group says are held by US authorities at the Cuban camp. Nine British citizens have been freed from the Cuban camp for terrorist suspects after pressure from the British government, but Amnesty said another nine with ties to Britain were still being held. (The New York Times, 5/2/06)

February 9: US military officials at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, strapped hunger-striking prisoners into restraint chairs for hours to feed them through tubes and isolated them in cold cells, The New York Times said. A Pentagon official said there was no one immediately available to comment on the report. The Times, citing unnamed military officials, said tougher measures came in recent weeks after authorities concluded some of the prisoners were determined to kill themselves. The apparent result has been a sharp drop in the number of inmates refusing to eat. Only four hunger strikers remain, down from 84 at the end of December, the chief military spokesman at Guantanamo, Lt. Col. Jeremy M. Martin, told the newspaper. (Reuters, 9/2/06)

February 14: A UN investigation has concluded that the United States committed acts amounting to torture at Guantanamo Bay, including force-feeding detainees and subjecting them to prolonged solitary confinement, according to a draft report obtained by the press. US officials rejected the report, saying it was riddled with errors and treated statements from detainees' lawyers as fact. The report from five UN human rights experts also recommended the United States close Guantanamo Bay and revoke all special interrogation techniques authorized by the Department of Defense. (CNN, AP, 14/2/06)

February 16: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said the United States should close the prison at Guantanamo Bay for terror suspects as soon as possible, backing a key conclusion of a UN-appointed independent panel. White House spokesman Scott McClellan rejected the call to shut the camp, saying the military treats all detainees humanely and that "these are dangerous terrorists that we're talking about.'' The report, released in Geneva, said the United States must close the detention facility "without further delay" because it is effectively a torture camp where prisoners have no access to justice. (Toronto Star, 17/2/06)

February 17: A British Cabinet member has urged the United States to close the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay and said he believed Prime Minister Tony Blair shared that view. Blair was more cautious, calling the detention center an "anomaly" during a news conference in Berlin, Germany. "I said last year that it's an anomaly, and sooner or later it has got to be dealt with," Blair told reporters after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel. (CNN, AP 17/2/06)

February 17: Colombia and the country's second-largest Marxist rebel group met for a second round of exploratory peace talks that as yet have no agreed agenda. Colombian peace commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo said a first meeting held in Havana in December with commanders of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, had "unfrozen" ties and created what he termed a "precarious" trust. "There is a mutual will for peace and the important thing now is to generate confidence in the process (…) so that we can find a way to end the violence that has caused so much pain to our country," he told reporters. Cuba is hosting the talks between the Colombian government and the ELN, a 5,000-strong force that has fought a bloody insurgency since it was founded in 1964 by radical students and Roman Catholic priests inspired by Fidel Castro's revolution. (Reuters, 17/2/06)

February 23: A federal judge ordered the Pentagon to release the identities of hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo Bay to the press. The move would force the government to break its secrecy and reveal the most comprehensive list yet of those who have been imprisoned there. Some of the hundreds of detainees in the war on terror being held at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been held as long as four years. Only a handful have been officially identified. (CNN, 23/2/06)

February 24: Colombia agreed to suspend capture orders for two leaders of the country's second-largest Marxist guerrilla group in an effort to build trust in peace talks hosted by Cuba. The Cuban-inspired National Liberation Army, or ELN, which was founded in 1964 by radical students and Roman Catholic priests, said the provisional legal status given to its commanders, Antonio Garcia and Ramiro Vargas, cleared the way for formal negotiations. ``Our delegation had not been recognized politically until now,'' Garcia, top military commander of the 5,000-strong rebel force, said at a news conference during a second round of exploratory talks in Cuba. "The talks were unstable because it was not clear whether the government was dealing with criminals or guerrillas,'' he said. Colombian peace commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo said the government, which considers the ELN a terrorist organization, was opening a political space for the ELN to lay down its arms. (The New York Times, 24/2/06)

February 27: Exploratory peace talks between the Colombian government and the country's second-largest Marxist guerrilla group ended with no agreement other than to meet again in April. Colombian peace commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo and leaders of the Cuban-inspired National Liberation Army, or ELN, said they would hold a third round of preliminary talks in Havana at the beginning of April. (Reuters, 27/2/06)