E/CN.4/2006/120 page 43 Annex II LETTER DATED 31 JANUARY 2006, ADDRESSED TO THE OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, BY THE PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO THE UNITED NATIONS AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS IN GENEVA “We have received your letter dated January 16, 2006, enclosing an advance unedited copy of the report of four Special Rapporteurs and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on the situation of detainees in Guantánamo Bay (‘Unedited Report’). Your letter asked for any factual clarifications regarding the Unedited Report by 31 January and noted that ‘changes made will not be of a substantive nature’. The United States Government regrets that it has not received sufficient opportunity to provide a fuller response to the factual and legal assertions and conclusions in the Unedited Report. Despite the substantial informational material presented by the United States to the Special Rapporteurs in 2005 regarding Guantánamo and the offer to three of the Special Rapporteurs to visit the facility to observe first hand the conditions of detention, there is little evidence in the Unedited Report that the Special Rapporteurs have considered the information provided by the United States. We offered the Special Rapporteurs unprecedented access to Guantánamo, similar to that which we provide to U.S. congressional delegations. It is particularly unfortunate that the Special Rapporteurs rejected the invitation and that their Unedited Report does not reflect the direct, personal knowledge that this visit would have provided. Rather, the Unedited Report is presented as a set of conclusions - it selectively includes only those factual assertions needed to support those conclusions and ignores other facts that would undermine those conclusions. As a result, we categorically object to most of the Unedited Report’s content and conclusions as largely without merit and not based clearly in the facts. An example of this problematic approach is how the Unedited Report deals with the force-feeding of detainees. The U.S. Government has provided information that in the case of detainees who have gone on hunger strikes, Guantánamo authorities have authorized involuntary feeding arrangements, monitored by health care professionals, to preserve the life and health of the detainees. Rather than reporting the factual information provided by the United States on when and how involuntary feeding is authorized and how it is carried out, the Unedited Report simply states categorically that ‘excessive force was used routinely’ for this purpose and that ‘some of the methods used for force-feeding definitely amount to torture’. This is untrue, and no such methods are described in the Unedited Report. Moreover, it is bewildering to the United States Government that its practice of preserving the life and health of detainees is roundly condemned by the Special Rapporteurs and is presented as a violation of their human rights and of medical ethics. We are equally troubled by the Unedited Report’s analysis of the legal regime governing Guantánamo detention. Nowhere does the report set out clearly the legal regime that applies according to U.S. law. The United States has made clear its position that it is engaged in a