Take Action to Free Murat Kurnaz

Dialog International and The Atlantic Review are urging our readers to take action in the case of Murat Kurnaz, the young man from Bremen who has been in the custody of the US military since late 2001, and has been at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba since January of 2002.  I have written about the case of Murat Kurnaz before: he is a devout Muslim who was visiting some religious Madrasses in Pakistan when he was detained, but there is no evidence that Murat was involved in any kind of terrorist activity.  Amnesty International has some good information about Murat Kurnaz, including the dispute concerning his citizenship:

The US authorities say that the status of detainees in Guantánamo Bay is a matter for bilateral diplomacy between them and the government of the detainee. The German Foreign Minister, however, informed the Kurnaz family by letter that there was no possibility of Germany making diplomatic representations on behalf of Murat Kurnaz. The Turkish government originally viewed Murat Kurnaz as "German-Turkish". Only after intense lobbying by Rabiye Kurnaz did the Turkish authorities come to accept him as their responsibility. Despite this recognition, the Turkish government has shown little interest in pressuring the US government over Murat Kurnaz’ case.

In August 2004 Thomas Röwekamp, the Senator for Interior Affairs in Bremen, declared that Murat Kurnaz’ indefinite residence visa had lapsed because he had been out of Germany for over six months and had not reapplied. The Senator stated that "if [Murat Kurnaz] were to arrive now at a German airport with his pass-port… he wouldn’t be allowed to enter the country".

Murat Kurnaz is a man without a country, so he is in need of our support - no nation will agree to represent his interests.  A good chronicle of Murat's imprisonment and alleged incidents of torture can be found here.

We are urging everyone to take action to demand the release of Murat Kurnaz.  German readers should call US Ambassador William R. TImken in Berlin Tel: (030) 8305-0) and ask why Murat Kurnaz has been denied due process and why he has been tortured.  Or please contact the nearest US Consulate in Germany and demand answers.  An e-mail to Thomas Röwekamp should also be sent to inquire why Murat can no longer return to Germany - the place of his birth - even though he has never been charged with a crime:

Herrn Thomas Röwekamp
Der Senator für Inneres und Sport
Contrescarpe 22/24
28203 Bremen, Germany
Fax: +49 42-1361-9019
e-mail: office@inneres.bremen.de

I am urging all US readers to write their congressional representatives to urge action in the case of Murat Kurnaz, and to speak out about the instances of torture and abuse that have been reported at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and elsewhere.

Here is my e-mail to Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) who is the chairperson of the senate Homeland Security Committee and who serves on the Armed Services Committee:

Dear Senator Collins,

I am writing you on behalf of Murat Kurnaz, a 23-year old Turkish-German man who has been held at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba since January 2002, but has yet to be charged with a crime.  Murat was born in Bremen, Germany as the son of Turkish Gastarbeiter, and never became a German citizen. So the German government has refused to act on his behalf, and the Turkish government has done little since they do not consider him a true citizen of Turkey. Murat is truly a "man with out a country".  In 2001 Murat, a devout Muslim, traveled to Pakistan to study the Koran. He did in fact study at several Madrasses, but was pulled off a bus by Pakastani police and handed over to US authorities, who transfered him to the airbase in Kandahar, Afghanistan where Murat was "interrogated".  Murat has charged that his American interrogators tortured him with electric shock and "waterboarding".  We now know from the testimony of some courageous US servicemen that such incidents of torture at Kandahar and elsewhere were common. In January 2002 Murat was transferred to the camp in Guantanamo, where he has suffered additional abuse, according to his lawyer, Bernhard Docke.

Earlier this year US Federal Judge Joyce Hens Green ruled that Murat Kurnaz was being illegally held as an "enemy combatant" and that there was no evidence that he was involved in any terrorist activity.  The US government has appealed this decision to a higher court.  In the meantime Murat Kurnaz remains imprisoned with no contact to his family permitted. Recently, a number of detainees at the camp have begun a hunger strike to protest their open-ended imprisonment.  Information is sketchy, but several are reported to be near death from starvation. It is hard to imagine the kind of despair that would drive a human being to opt for death by starvation.

Senator Collins, you have done the people of Maine and of the nation at large a disservice by failing to speak out about the human rights abuses in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, the US base at Kandahar, and elsewhere.  Today Guantanamo remains a prime recruitment poster for al-Qaida and terrorist organizations around the world. Each day that this is allowed to continue endangers the lives of American military men and women serving in the Middle East and elsewhere.  I urge you to exert your influence to resolve the case of Murat Kurnaz: he should either be charged with a crime or released immediately.  This cannot undo the damage we as a nation have inflicted on this man's human rights, nor does it remove the shameful blemish of torture and abuse. But it could show the world that we have some leaders that stand for the rule of law and the rights enshrined in our constitution.

Sincerely,

UPDATE: This front-page article in this morning's Washington Post underscores the urgency here, as more detainees attempt suicide out of desperation.

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