Wednesday, June 6, 2012

12-06-06 The EC’s human rights commissioner: Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo - a "smaller version of Guantanamo"

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U.S. BASE BONDSTEEL

‘Smaller Version of Guantanamo” in Kosovo

The EC’s human rights commissioner called the prison within the U.S. base in Kosovo ‘a smaller version of Guantanamo’.
Amnesty International 

That the case of Guantanamo is not unique was proven by human rights activists who claim that prisons similar to the one in Cuba also existed in Bosnia and Kosovo.

The British Telegraph writes about two contentious locations, which is Eagle, near Tuzla in Bosnia, and Bondsteel in Kosovo. Both prisons were part of U.S. military bases. According to the most recent information, alleged members of Al-Qaeda were tortured and questioned there and then transferred to Afghanistan and then into Guantanamo.

After the attack on the WTC in New York, the German intelligence service (BND) was commanded to send an interpreter together with two intelligence officers to Tuzla to help interrogate prisoners who were suspected of terrorism, Germany’s weekly Stern reported last week.

A smaller version of Guantanamo
The news arrived after Barack Obama on January 23 ordered the closing down of secret prisons, known as CIA’s black sites in which an unknown number of “ghost detainees” were held.

Together with the new information about the number of prisoners who had been kept in such locations without any rights or legal remedy, locations used by the CIA have began to be revealed.

Apart from Bosnia and Kosovo, many prisoners were also held in Thailand. Some data reveal that an unknown number of people had also been imprisoned in Poland and Rumania. But the branched-out network of black sites reached all the way to the cape of Africa, which includes “Kamp Lemonier”, a former French base intended for the legionnaires.

As far as the U.S. army base Bondsteel is concerned, the British Guardian was the first to state the words of the European Commission’s human rights commissioner who dubbed the location “A smaller version of Guantanamo”.

SOURCE:http://dalje.com/en-world/smaller-version-of-guantanamo-in-kosovo/229833
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Kosovo’s dirty secret: the background to Germany’s Secret Service affair
by Peter Schwarz


The arrest of three German secret service agents in Kosovo exposes the sort of society that has been developed with German and American support in this former part of Yugoslavia­one mired in corruption, organised crime and secret service plots.

The affair began on November 14, when a bomb exploded outside the office of the European Union special representative, Pieter Feith, in Kosovo’s capital, Pristina. The building was damaged but no one was hurt. Immediately afterward in a neighbouring building, a German man, Andreas J., was observed and questioned by the Kosovan security forces, and unmasked as an agent of Germany’s Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND, Secret Service). This is according to the public prosecutor’s office. German sources, however, claim that Andreas J. only came to the scene four hours after the explosion to take photographs.

Normally, such secret service affairs between friendly governments are settled quietly and discreetly, usually by the departure of the unmasked agents. Not so in this case. Last week, the police arrested Andreas J. and two additional BND agents, accusing them of having planted the bomb at the EU’s International Civilian Office (ICO) building.

The case has received enormous attention and has led to a diplomatic crisis between Berlin and Pristina. Pictures of those arrested were shown on Kosovan TV and on the front pages of the press, complete with rumours whose source was thought to be the office of Prime Minister Hashim Thaci. It was claimed that the public prosecutor’s office possessed a video showing Andreas J. throwing the explosive device at the ICO building. However, various witnesses who claim to have seen the video say it is not possible to clearly identify anyone on the tape. Thaci, for his part, completely denies any involvement and says the whole affair is a matter for the allegedly independent Kosovan justice system.

Speculation has since been rife about the background to the case, but it is doubtful whether it will ever be clarified. Kosovo is a jungle of rival secret services. In this regard, it resembles Berlin before the fall of the Wall. The US, Germany, Britain, Italy and France all have considerable intelligence operations in the country, which work both with and against one another. Moreover, in this country of just 2.1 million inhabitants, some 15,000 NATO soldiers and 1,500 UN police officers are stationed, as well as 400 judges, police officers and security officers belonging to the UN’s EULEX mission.

In addition, the country has a government and state apparatus that are notoriously corrupt and are closely linked with organised crime. According to a report by the Berlin Institute for European Policy, produced last year on behalf of the German army, drugs, human trafficking and arms smuggling, theft, robbery and car crime are the only increasing and profitable sectors of the country’s economy. Conservative estimates put the annual monetary turnover of the mafia at approximately €550 million. This represents a quarter of the country’s gross domestic product, which is artificially inflated by enormous international transfers. Kosovo has become a “poly-criminal multifunctional region,” with Kosovo playing an important role, particularly as a transit country for Afghan heroin.

READ MORE:http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11239
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Camp Bondsteel

The United States agreed to provide a force of approximately 7,000 US personnel as part of the NATO KFOR to help maintain a capable military force in Kosovo and to ensure the safe return of Kosovar refugees. The US supports KFOR by providing the headquarters and troops for one of the four NATO sectors. The US also provides personnel, units and equipment to other components of the KFOR organization.

Camp Bondsteel [CBS] is quite large: 955 acres or 360,000 square meters. If you were to run the outer perimeter, it is about 7 miles...
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Camp Bondsteel has an improved detention facility, with a 250 by 350 foot temporary structure composed of tents with plywood sidewalls and floors, electricity, heat, and lights. The project also includes a separate shower point and security measures - perimeter fencing, triple-standard concertina wire, locking gates, and an upgraded guard tower. The facility replaced an interim holding cell at Bondsteel and provides space for persons detained in incidents throughout the US sector in Kosovo.

READ MORE:http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/camp-bondsteel.htm

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Camp Bondsteel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo

Camp Bondsteel is the main base of the United States Army under KFOR command in Kosovo.[a] Located near Uroševac in the eastern part of Kosovo, the base serves as the NATO headquarters for KFOR's Multinational Brigade East (MNBG -E). The base is named after Vietnam War Medal of Honorrecipient United States Army Staff Sergeant James L. Bondsteel.

Camp Bondsteel was constructed by the 94th Engineer Construction Battalion, 568 Combat Support Engineer Company together with the private Kellogg, Brown and Root Corporation (KBR) under the direction of the Army Corps of Engineers. KBR is also the prime contractor for the operation of the camp. The camp is built mainly of wooden, semi permanent SEA (South East Asia) huts and is surrounded by a 2.5 m (8.2 ft) high earthen wall. The camp occupies 955 acres (3.86 km2) of land.[1] To construct the base, two hills were flattened and the valley between them was filled. In August 1999, 52 helipads were constructed on the facility's south perimeter to handle helicopter aviation.

Contents

Facilities

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U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visiting Camp Bondsteel, May 2009

Camp Bondsteel has many facilities on base for use by the soldiers and civilian employees who live and work there, and can hold up to 7,000 soldiers which makes it the largest US base in the Balkans. The post exchange (PX) is the largest military exchange in south eastern Europe and contains all the necessities and more that someone may need while in Kosovo, including TVs, phones, books, DVDs, CDs, small furniture, video games, computers, clothes, shoes, food, and more, all in its two story building.[1] The base also has, arguably, the best hospital in Kosovo; a movie theater; one gym; two recreation buildings that have phones, computers with internet connection, pool tables, video games and more; one chapel with various religious services and other activities; one large dining facility; a fire station; a military police station; the Laura Bush education center where classes are offered through theUniversity of Maryland University College and Central Texas College; two cappuccino bars, a Burger King, Taco Bell, and an Anthony's Pizza pizzeria; onebarber shops; one laundry facilities employing local nationals who do the laundry for those living on base; one press shops; a sewing shop; My Thai massage shops employing mostly Thai women who conduct various massages and are regulated by military officials; various local vendors who sell Kosovo souvenirs and products; softball and football fields; and more.[1]

Controversies

Emacs! 


"Big Duke" (Mt. Ljuboten) looming over Camp Bondsteel

The United States Army has been criticized for using the base as a detention facility, and for the conditions faced by the detainees there.[2] In November 2005, Alvaro Gil-Robles, the human rights envoy of the Council of Europe, described the camp as a "smaller version of Guantanamo" following a visit. The Swiss newspaper Weltwoche reported, "A German report by the Berlin Institute for European Policy, produced last year on behalf of the German army... is particularly critical of the role of the US, which had obstructed European investigations and which had been opened up to political extortion by the existence of a secret CIA detention center on the grounds of Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo...†[3] In response, the US Army stated that there were no secret detention facilities in the Camp. The detention facilities were completely demolished in late 2008/early 2009, [ citation needed] ending once and for all the accusations of a "secret detention facility" present at Camp Bondsteel.

Notes and references

Notes:a.   ^ Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Serbia and the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo. The latter declared independence on 17 February 2008, while Serbia claims it as part of its own sovereign territory. Its independence is recognised by 91 out of 193 UN member states.

References:
  1. ^ a b c "Camp Bondsteel". Global Security. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/camp-bondsteel.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-31. 
  2. ^ "‘Smaller Version of Guantanamo" in Kosovo". 2009-01-31. http://www.javno.com/en/world/clanak.php?id=229833. Retrieved 2009-01-31. mirror
  3. ^ Peter Schwarz (2008-12-01). "Kosovo’s dirty secret: the background to Germany’s Secret Service affair". http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11239. Retrieved 2009-01-31. "The German report is particular critical of the role of the US, which had obstructed European investigations and which had been opened up to political extortion by the existence of secret CIA detention centres in the grounds of Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo,†writes Weltwoche. “Doubts are growing about the American methods and also as a result of the ‘serious’ description of a high-ranking German UN police officer that the main task of UNMIK’s second in command, American Steve Schook, is ‘to get drunk with Ramush Haradinaj once a week’."  mirror

External links


SOURCE:http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Camp_Bondsteel&oldid=484398450 
 
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