The Philosopher's Attic

Amnesty International reports today that the request of three of the numerous – do we even know how many are there at this point? – detainees that have asked for asylum in Switzerland, have been denied (Bern rejects Asylum for Guantanamo Inmates – Swissinfo)

One of the widely awaited actions of US President Elect Obama once he is officially instated into his functions, is the closing of the law-free zone of the Guantanamo prison for terrorist suspects – infamously called Camp X-Ray or Camp Delta or even detention camp.
The name Guantanamo has become synonym with a number of things, fear of terrorism that leads to power abuse, unlawful imprisonment, governmentally ordered torture on prisoners, detention without trial only being a few of them. Throughout the world the name has become as evocative and shiver inspiring as Abu-Graib. The only real difference between the two is the status of soil: Abu Graib was in a far away country on the other side of the globe and on foreign ground, Guantanamo is – granted no around the corner from a European perspective – but factually American soil seeing that the Naval Base is extraterritorial in Cuba.
It takes a while even for the informed US American to understand that a a law-free zone has been created voluntarily and intentionally by their own government as to be at liberty to torture and hold people outside of any legal founding, given the current state of global fear that is maintained at a certain level to justify said injustice.
From a moral standpoint there are a few things that need to be raised as questions and that still have not been properly addressed as of yet either by the philosophical or ethical professional community, nor by the law professionals or even politicians: what is an unlawful combatant in the light of the system of clan wars and interaction as can be found in Afghanistan? Do the ends of saving and protecting the American people and military abroad really justify any means? To a point where the Constitution and Human Rights are flaunted so badly? Is the use of and redefinition of torture in order to make waterboarding not torture, really the way to promote the values of our modern world, as the US have written on their flag in this war on terrorism? (For more on the issue of governemental torture in the US and in Guantanamo, I point to the Documentary ‘Torturing Democracy Documentary’ which makes a shocking and sickening point on this issue. But beware, it is not for the faint of heart or the easily outraged. It’ll leave you shuddering and trembling.)

The problem however that will arise with a closure of the Camps in Guantanamo, is that these detainees cannot be sent home where they are likely to either be prosecuted, hunted, tortured or killed. Any country that knows of such danger is legally prohibited of sending them back. What the US have created here, is a Russian Doll of problems and solving them will entail much more than just a political decision to close Guantanamo. These prisoners need a safe haven and of course the American Government refuses to give them that. (Which is understandable due to their paranoia and reality – sic! – of domestic terrorism. If anything Guantanamo has created more people with terrorist intent than it set out of capture and… dispose of.) So now has started the scramble for other solutions. Other countries will have to step up and of course the EU and Switzerland are obvious candidates.

The three prisoners that have asked for asylum in Switzerland are from Algeria, Lybia and China. Now, I get that the Swiss Immigration Office cannot grant a Lybian citizen asylum in the current bras-de-fer with Gaddafi after the incident that had his son arrested in Geneva (take a look at the second paragraph) and that led to a complete diplomatic meltdown between the two countries.
I understand that France is a much clearer destination for an Algerian, but I do certainly not understand or condone the refusal of a Chinese. It doesn’t make any sense.

From these three, the Chinese prisoner is most likely to suffer prosecution and danger of death than any of the other two. It is safe to assume that the person in question is from the Uyghur tribe, who are Muslim Chinese of Turkic descent. They are a minority that has been persecuted for a long time and have turned to terrorist attacks to state their point. (On the Uighurs Problematic in China)

In my view Switzerland had the possibility to make a stand here and take the first step that would have permitted a lot of other countries to follow and help the US resolve the injustice that persists in the form of Guantanamo. My country has accepted over 40% of the overall number of refugees from the Bosnia war in the 90ies and has the highest percentage of refugees from former Jugoslavia (meaning from all the wars: First and Second Croatian War, Bosnia etc.) in the world, but we cannot find ways to accept a single Chinese prisoner that has been unlawfully kept for years without proof for suspicion of terrorist activity and has now been declared ‘not dangerous’ by the US authorities themselves?

I am ashamed.

Ashamed for a country that holds the chart of the United Nations and the Red Cross. Ashamed for a country that has been and continues to be the synonym for humanitarian action and speaking out against injustice and diplomacy.

Shame on all of us who stay silent.

yseult Issues, Politics/History current issues, debate, ethics, Philosophy, vices

Rwanda – but a name. Foreign, far off and yet it should be so close to our heart.

There are no words to express, no words to describe.

It’s not the horrors of a foreign country that should humble us. Nor the thousands of dead.

But our own ignorance, disillusionment and disregard.

14 years for uncountable souls tortured, lives lost and lies of a universal brotherhood of Nations exposed.

Our Western silence and forgetfulness kills again today. The memory of the dead innocent.

NB: I find it absolutely unbelievable that French or German media can’t seem to be bothered to issue more than one article on the 14 year commemoration of the beginning of the Rwandan genocide. It leaves me angry and speechless. English speaking media seem to pick it up a bit more.

yseult Issues, Politics/History

Twenty years of squatting in the city center of Geneva have been ended by a police ‘eviction’, but the general housing problems remain.

The city and the Police of Geneva cleared the oldest squat of the city. After almost twenty years of illegal use two properties on the Boulevard des Philosophes, the RHINO (“Retour des Habitants dans les Immeubles Non-Occupés” = Return of the residents into non-occupied houses) is no more. Geneva police started evicting to squat yesterday afternoon and all seemed to go well, until 6 pm. That’s when the riots started, the tear gas was launched and trash bins were burnt. The indignation of the people living in Rhino and the sympathiser that the city and the police started the eviction although a court hearing as to the status of the occupation (do the 20 years of occupation create a situation of tacit contract of rent or not?) still has not been decided and declared that it was only a matter of identity control. An identity control that excluded the pregnant women and the children. Everyone else was taken to the police station. Either way you phrase it, it was an eviction. Or don’t pregnant women need to have their identity ascertained?

While I am in no way hot for puerile anarchism, pot-induced socialist fantasies of a fairer world or the ‘free’ sub-cultural phenomenon of such places (cf. Rhino housed an independent cinema, a bar, restaurant and a concert stage), the squats in Geneva served a purpose.

Last year at the beginning of term, the University of Geneva announced that only 16% of all new students that were to begin their studies at the University would be lodged with the help of the University and the city. The remaining 84% would have to work something out on their own. The possible opportunities in Geneva are the following: shared housing, living outside of the city (Lausanne, France etc.) or live in a squat until you find an apartment.
In a city where your kitchen counts as a liveable room and where you easily pay 1000 SFR. for a dump simply because it’s a 3 room apartment (where the kitchen counts as a full room!), where the xenophobia of the natives is so harsh (if you’re a Swiss German you won’t get a place to stay easily, even if you advance one year of the rent) and where the living cost is as high as I’ve experienced it in Paris, RHINO had a purpose. And it had it’s fans. Over time Rhino had become the contrasting center of an otherwise posh, money-oriented city that sometimes does more to accommodate tourists and oil-rich investors from Russia and Arab countries than take steps towards a better integration of emigrants, and lesser fortunate citizens.
As a squat with a year long history, Rhino was favoured by a lot of people, city councils and artists alike. And Rhino served a vital function within the fragile situation of this city.

It allowed students to crash for a while starting their new university courses and looking for an apartment of their own with the help of the city and the university. I’ve rarely heard of people staying longer than a few months, a year at the most. The reason for this is simple: living with a communal bath and a communal kitchen with 5 to 10 people in a single flat, having to deal with the self proclaimed leaders of the squat that although sporting every platitude a “Anarchism for Dummies” could offer, relished in their own little power while other people (the tax payer) worked to pay for the electricity and the water the squats of the city (Rhino was an exception, since the squatters had a running contract for payment of charges for electricity and water, this is in contrast with the Squat de la Tour for instance) consumed illegally.

But Rhino had a reason here in Geneva. Even if it was to force the city and the surrounding communities to rethink their housing plans and constructions of new housing. It’s probably something that will never happen. And the announcement of the city to build several new housing complexes does nothing to settle my mind. 50% of these new apartments are luxury flats and won’t do anything to help young adults, young families or students with their eternal quest for a decent place to live here in the International Metropole Geneva. Capital of the UN and the Humanitarian Movement.

The joke would be full of sarcasm, if it wasn’t the sad truth.

Links:
Taux de vacance des logements à Genève : 0,19 % au 1 juin 2005
Nouveaux plans de logements à Genève
News Clipping (in English)
News Clipping Tribune de Geneve (in English)

yseult Issues, Politics/History