SENIOR doctors have condemned the Government’s failure to provide medical aid to British residents held at Guantanamo Bay.

In a letter to The Times today, 120 signatories from the medical profession call for an independent investigation to determine the medical needs of the detainees, and criticises the “shameful” refusal of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to respond to a request by the British Medical Association to send a team of doctors to Cuba.

Nine British citizens have been released from the camp since 2004, but there are believed to be at least eight British residents still there after up to four years.

The letter also condemns the failure of the FCO’s pro bono medical and legal panels to discuss the plight of the detainees, on the ground that they are not British passport holders.

“Our Government’s excuse is that it does not wish to set a precedent to act for British residents, rather than British citizens,” the letter says. “We find this morally repugnant.”

It continues: “It is clear that an independent scrutiny is urgently required by physicians outside of the US military. The silence of the Foreign Office is shameful and reflects the collusion of this country in a war crime.”

Responding to the letter, an FCO spokesman said yesterday that Britain had a policy of not offering consular services to non-British nationals. But he added that the FCO had met the relatives of some British residents being detained at Guantanamo and that Britain regarded the existence of the detention centre as “unacceptable” and that the facility should be closed.

The panels were set up to assist the Government where there is a serious concern for the medical and legal status of British prisoners overseas. Yet human rights groups say that the Government is refusing to offer any formal legal or medical help for the men — with the exception of one, Bisher al- Rawi. He has been accorded a separate status and official calls have been made for his release, apparently because of his reported links to the intelligence services.

Signatories to the letter include Charles Clarke, of the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London, a member of the FCO’s pro bono medical panel, and David Halpin, a member of the penal panel.

Dr Clarke said that members of both panels had made inquiries about assisting the detainees and had received a reply from Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, that said: “Where consular officials are aware of a serious legal problem, they seek to solve this at a local level before the use of either panel is considered.” ()

None of the detainees held at Guantanamo has been examined by independent doctors. Omar Deghayes, one of the detained British residents, is believed to have been partially blinded after guards allegedly forced a finger into his eye while repeatedly pepper-spraying him in the face.

Concerns for the mental health of the Guantanamo detainees were further heightened after three died — apparently from self-inflicted injuries — in June.

After a report from the UN Committee Against Torture, which concluded that interrogation techniques used at the camp were prohibited by international conventions , the BMA request, made at the association’s annual conference in June, called for “direct and unfettered access” for doctors to examine the health of detainees, and for the results to be made public.

A spokesman for the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, a charity based in London, said that it was willing to send a team of doctors.

David Nicholl, a consultant neurologist at the City Hospital in Birmingham, who co-ordinated The Times letter, said: “Many doctors I speak to are outraged by the Government’s heartless attitude. They simply can’t accept that men trapped at Guantanamo should be denied independent medical assistance because the Government is hair-splitting about ‘nationality’ versus ‘residency’ status. The case is straightforward: these men are vulnerable and they need to be examined by a team of independent physicians.”

Speaking on publication of the letter, Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK, said: “It’s shameful that in four and half years the Government has not insisted on independent medical examinations for long-term residents of the

UK held in the black hole of Guantanamo. These men — some of whom are refugees that the UK has acknowledged to be vulnerable people — have essentially been left to rot in Guantanamo’s cells. They are Guantanamo’s forgotten prisoners.”

Years in limbo

• The detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, opened in 2002 and holds suspected al-Qaeda and Taleban members
  
  
• About 460 prisoners from 35 countries are now being held at the camp, according to Amnesty International. Though some have now been held for 4½ years, most have yet to be charged with an offence, and none has received a proper trial
  
  
• Nine British citizens have been released from the camp since 2004, but at least eight British residents are still being held there
  
  
• The British residents are: Omar Deghayes, Bisher al-Rawi, Binyam Mohamed, Shaker Aamer, Jamil el-Banna, Ahmed Errachidi, Ahmed Belbacha and Abdennour Sameur

  Click here to read the letter in full

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