Guantanamo Gulag

During a press conference to announce its newly published annual report, Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan stated "Guantanamo has become the gulag of our time." Of course, she has reference to the U.S. detention facility for Taliban and al Qaeda suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Equally well-known is the reference to the system of forced-labor prison camps of the former Soviet Union. Shame on Ms. Khan, and shame on Amnesty International.

Next to the Jewish Holocaust, the atrocities committed against humanity in the Soviet Gulag represent one of the worst crimes in history. Perhaps the best known of the Gulag camp complexes was Kolyma, an area about six times the size of France that contained more than 100 camps. About three million are thought to have died there from its establishment in 1931 to 1953, the year of Stalin's death. Extreme production quotas, brutality, hunger and harsh
elements were major reasons for the Gulag's high fatality rate, which was as high as 80% during the first months in many camps. Logging and mining were among the most common of activities, as well as the harshest. In a Gulag mine, one person's production quota might be as high as 29,000 pounds of ore per day. Failure to meet a quota resulted in a loss of vital rations, a cycle that usually had fatal consequences. Inmates were often forced to work in inhuman conditions. In spite of the brutal climate, they were almost never adequately clothed or fed. The Gulag scheme was adapted into the infamous concentration camp system used during World War II, especially as Nazi death factories.

Yesterday, Amnesty International’s Secretary General used the memory of that state-sponsored Soviet mass-murder as a political prop. Comparison with Guantanamo diminishes the reality of what happened in the Gulag Archipelago, as Alexander Solzhenitsyn famously dubbed it. It also is the worst kind of vicious slander against the United States. AI’s actions cheapen the memory of a horrific crime and do a terrible disservice to this country at a perilous time as we struggle to properly respond to the worst act of terrorism in history, and need to examine the dangers we face with clarity and purpose.

A group that lacks the basic moral vision needed to distinguish between Stalin's death camps and detention centers for terrorists who kill civilians isn’t worthy of our respect. Shame on Amnesty International.

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Update (June 7, 2005)

Appearing on Fox News last Sunday, William Schulz, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, offered at least a partial retraction for the outrageous Guantanamo = gulag comment made some two weeks ago by his boss, the organization's Secretary General. "Clearly, this is not an exact or a literal analogy," he stated. "In size and in duration, there are not similarities between U.S. detention facilities and the gulag. ... People are not being starved in those facilities. They're not being subjected to forced labor."

These comments are a welcome correction, but it seems the esteemed Executive Director needs a little help here. The gulag camps were set up to crush political opposition and became home to anyone who dared to speak out against the government in the former Soviet Union. Under Joseph Stalin, they were used to maintain the Soviet state by keeping its populace in a state of terror. The intention at Guantanamo is to prevent terror not create it.

It is estimated that as many as 50 million people died in the Soviet gulag. 50 million people. For the record, not one prisoner has died at Guantanamo Bay. Fairly significant difference, wouldn't you say Mr. Schulz? It is very sad to see an otherwise fine organization such as Amnesty International demonstrate such astonishingly poor judgment and damage their credibility with such reckless rhetoric.

One would wish that an organization that sets itself up as an international moral arbiter, would now evidence a greater ability to admit its own mistakes and to make right its wrongs, not to mention a larger capacity for self-reflection. What a marvelous opportunity was missed to demonstrate by their own example the very thing they demand of others.