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New York Monthly Herald. July 2006 Issue P. 9                                                                                                

USA AFFAIRS

US terror inmates 'ambush guards'

Camp 4 is a less restrictive part of the facility.

 

Inmates at the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba have attacked guards after luring them with a staged suicide attempt, the US military said. The detainees used weapons crafted from fans and light fixtures and the disturbance was quelled with minimum force, a US military spokesman said. Six inmates were reportedly hurt in the clash. Earlier two inmates tried to kill themselves with prescribed drugs. Last month's incident coincides with a UN call on the US to close down the camp. The UN Committee against Torture said the US should release detainees or give them access to a judicial process. The US military has described Thursday's attack as the most violent and best organised in the history of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. This  is the first time that details have emerged of such an incident involving more than one inmate, although individuals regularly resist guards. The US military said guards responded to an apparent attempt at suicide in Camp 4, a less restrictive part of the facility where detainees are allowed move more freely as a reward for good behaviour. The facility's commanding officer, Rear Adm Harry Harris said the attempt was "a ruse to get the guards to enter the compound". He said 10 detainees then attacked the guards as they entered the area, whose floor had been "slickened" with excrement, urine and soap. Weapons such as broken light fittings and fan blades were used and at one point, another military spokesman said, the guards "were losing the fight". The violence spread, as other inmates began destroying fittings in their parts of the prison. The military said it took a team of 23 guards an hour to quell the unrest, using pepper spray and non-lethal shotgun rounds. A spokesman said six detainees were treated for minor injuries and no soldiers were hurt. None of the detainees involved has been named. All those involved in the clash were removed to higher-security parts of the centre. Earlier, two detainees are said to have attempted to commit suicide by overdosing on prescription drugs they had been hoarding. Both were reportedly unconscious but in a stable condition. The military says there have been 39 suicide attempts in the camp since 2002, and hunger strikes have been common as detainees protest against their continued detention without trial. About 460 detainees are held at Guantanamo, which opened after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Most detainees are being held without charge or trial, and lawyers who have visited the facility say many of them suffer from depression. The call by the UN torture committee to close Guantanamo was accompanied by recommendations that secret US detention facilities abroad should be closed. It called for "immediate measures" to eradicate torture and ill-treatment of detainees by US military personnel "in any territory under its jurisdiction". John Bellinger, a legal spokesman for the US state department, said the report contained "factual and legal inaccuracies". Some "acts of abuse" had occurred in the past, he said, but the US was taking steps to prevent any repeat.

 

US to review uranium deal

Many Soviet nuclear weapons have been decommissioned.

Top Russian and US nuclear officials are to discuss changes to a deal regulating the recovery of uranium from dismantled Soviet nuclear weapons. The two countries signed agreements in 1993 and 1994 giving US firm Usec the exclusive right to sell uranium recovered from Russian warheads. The uranium has been converted into a type that can be used for civilian purposes. Russia now says it wants to be paid more for the uranium. Moreover, some Russian officials have controversially demanded the right to sell nuclear fuel directly to customers. The head of Russia's atomic energy agency, Sergei Kiriyenko, will hold talks with a number of top US nuclear officials on Monday. He says he wants the US to lift what Russia considers to be discriminatory restrictions on exports of Russian uranium products to US customers. The two countries have still not signed an inter-governmental treaty on cooperation in civilian nuclear technology. And Russia says this is hindering progress in modernising agreements signed shortly after the fall of Communism. In particular, Russian officials complain about the continuation of restrictions on deliveries of their nuclear products to the US. They are a lucrative export, reportedly valued at half a billion dollars a year.

Russian resentment : Under the existing programme - known as Megatons and Megawatts - Russia reprocesses highly-enriched uranium from nuclear weapons decommissioned under disarmament treaties into a form that can be used as fuel for US nuclear power stations. Nearly 11,000 Soviet-era nuclear warheads have been reprocessed this way. But Russia increasingly resents the obligation to sell the fuel through Usec - the United States Enrichment Corporation - which is the official agent of the American government. The Russian government says Usec's pricing policies are designed to protect its commercial interests, rather than Russia's potential earnings. Uranium prices have tripled over recent years, but this is not reflected in the price Usec pays for Russian imports. Russian officials have suggested Mr Kiriyenko will lobby the heads of US nuclear corporations to try to bolster Moscow's arguments in favour of scrapping Usec's intermediary role altogether.  CONTINUES ON P10

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