UK firm picketed over Guantánamo 'torture' shackles
Handcuffs bearing the words 'Made in England' used to restrain Britons at Camp X-Ray prompt protest by human rights activists
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guantanamo/story/0,13743,1565811,00.html
Audrey Gillan
Friday September 9, 2005
In the late 18th century the company made "Nigger collars" for restraining slaves in America. Today, it makes the shackles that hold the inmates of Guantánamo Bay.
Yesterday, the Birmingham handcuff and baton manufacturer Hiatt & Company was picketed by human rights activists wearing orange jumpsuits in protest at its continued export to the US of handcuffs and other products used to hold prisoners at Camp X-Ray on the US naval base at Guantánamo, Cuba.
In a letter published today in the Guardian, local Birmingham MPs Clare Short and Lynne Jones, and a former Guantánamo Bay detainee, Moazzam Begg, explain that they are asking Hiatt to "commit to voluntarily and permanently [banning] all further exports to the US military, and hence to Guantánamo Bay, given the notorious abuses practised there".
Yesterday, Hiatt refused to take calls from the Guardian.
Ms Jones, MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, said yesterday: "I have no evidence to suggest they are currently exporting banned products but certainly they have in the past. I think it's worrying that these items are still exportable ... it is something they should be ashamed of."
The cuffs used at Guantánamo, which bind hands with a restraining device strapped around the body, bear the name Hiatt and the words "Made in England".
Mr Begg said: "When I was in Guantánamo Bay, one of the things I pointed out to my lawyer was how it was ironic that these shackles were made in England, just like me and him. It was very bizarre. Those shackles would often cut into my arms and legs and make me bleed. It was those very same shackles I saw being used by American soldiers in Bagram airbase to hang a prisoner from the ceiling. It said 'Made in England' on there too. If these cuffs are used to shackle people up to the tops of ceilings or cages and then [those people are] beaten, it calls into question what those shackles are actually being used for."
Mr Begg said that the handcuffs were attached to a "three-piece suit". He said: "A pair of handcuffs was attached to a waist chain which was in turn attached to another chain which led from the waist to the ankle and was then attached to a leg iron."
Protesting outside Hiatt's headquarters in Perry Barr in Birmingham, Clive Stafford Smith, the lawyer for eight of the 10 British men being held in the jail in Cuba, as well as 30 other foreign nationals, said: "I have seen 20 prisoners in Guantánamo in Hiatt shackles. They say all the others are in Hiatt shackles. What you have is a series of people who are British residents being held in British-made shackles."
In the Guardian letter the signatories say: "We do not mean to suggest that Hiatt's business, making shackles, is inherently unethical. However, it is vital that such corporations do not support governments that use torture and abuse. Sadly, Guantánamo Bay fails this test."
Hiatt has been making shackles and other restraints since 1780 and boasted that it was "simply the best" in the business. It produces handcuffs and batons for police forces across the UK, the US and many other countries.
It made leg irons until the mid-1980s when their manufacture was banned by the British government. In the mid 1990s, journalists discovered that British-made leg irons could still be purchased in the US and elsewhere in spite of this ban.
Amnesty International was concerned that large, over-sized handcuffs were being made in the UK for export to foreign countries, where they were then converted into leg cuffs. In a report, the human rights organisation said: "Because the UK government does not require a licence to export handcuffs to the US, or any other country, there is no control on how British-made handcuffs are incorporated into other types of restraint equipment such as belly chains in countries like the US, even though such types of restraint equipment are banned in the UK."
It has highlighted the use of Hiatt leg irons as instruments of torture, claiming that they were used on prisoners in Malawi and Saudi Arabia.
Hiatt was investigated in 1999 and the Department of Trade and Industry said that "a possible loophole to control individual cuffs above a certain threshold was closed on August 31 2000".
In 2002, the Liberal Democrat MP David Chidgey complained to Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, that oversized handcuffs were still being exported by Hiatt. The government said it had issued no licences and had passed the matter on to HM Customs and Excise for investigation.
In 1986, Hiatt began a joint venture forming a separate firm in the US called Hiatt Thompson. It is understood that when US Customs officials visited Hiatt Thompson's headquarters in Bedford Park, Illinois, they found leg irons there with 'Made in England' stamped on them. However, the company replied that these items could have been old stock. Trade in leg irons is not banned in the US.
Handcuffs bearing the words 'Made in England' used to restrain Britons at Camp X-Ray prompt protest by human rights activists
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guantanamo/story/0,13743,1565811,00.html
Audrey Gillan
Friday September 9, 2005
In the late 18th century the company made "Nigger collars" for restraining slaves in America. Today, it makes the shackles that hold the inmates of Guantánamo Bay.
Yesterday, the Birmingham handcuff and baton manufacturer Hiatt & Company was picketed by human rights activists wearing orange jumpsuits in protest at its continued export to the US of handcuffs and other products used to hold prisoners at Camp X-Ray on the US naval base at Guantánamo, Cuba.
In a letter published today in the Guardian, local Birmingham MPs Clare Short and Lynne Jones, and a former Guantánamo Bay detainee, Moazzam Begg, explain that they are asking Hiatt to "commit to voluntarily and permanently [banning] all further exports to the US military, and hence to Guantánamo Bay, given the notorious abuses practised there".
Yesterday, Hiatt refused to take calls from the Guardian.
Ms Jones, MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, said yesterday: "I have no evidence to suggest they are currently exporting banned products but certainly they have in the past. I think it's worrying that these items are still exportable ... it is something they should be ashamed of."
The cuffs used at Guantánamo, which bind hands with a restraining device strapped around the body, bear the name Hiatt and the words "Made in England".
Mr Begg said: "When I was in Guantánamo Bay, one of the things I pointed out to my lawyer was how it was ironic that these shackles were made in England, just like me and him. It was very bizarre. Those shackles would often cut into my arms and legs and make me bleed. It was those very same shackles I saw being used by American soldiers in Bagram airbase to hang a prisoner from the ceiling. It said 'Made in England' on there too. If these cuffs are used to shackle people up to the tops of ceilings or cages and then [those people are] beaten, it calls into question what those shackles are actually being used for."
Mr Begg said that the handcuffs were attached to a "three-piece suit". He said: "A pair of handcuffs was attached to a waist chain which was in turn attached to another chain which led from the waist to the ankle and was then attached to a leg iron."
Protesting outside Hiatt's headquarters in Perry Barr in Birmingham, Clive Stafford Smith, the lawyer for eight of the 10 British men being held in the jail in Cuba, as well as 30 other foreign nationals, said: "I have seen 20 prisoners in Guantánamo in Hiatt shackles. They say all the others are in Hiatt shackles. What you have is a series of people who are British residents being held in British-made shackles."
In the Guardian letter the signatories say: "We do not mean to suggest that Hiatt's business, making shackles, is inherently unethical. However, it is vital that such corporations do not support governments that use torture and abuse. Sadly, Guantánamo Bay fails this test."
Hiatt has been making shackles and other restraints since 1780 and boasted that it was "simply the best" in the business. It produces handcuffs and batons for police forces across the UK, the US and many other countries.
It made leg irons until the mid-1980s when their manufacture was banned by the British government. In the mid 1990s, journalists discovered that British-made leg irons could still be purchased in the US and elsewhere in spite of this ban.
Amnesty International was concerned that large, over-sized handcuffs were being made in the UK for export to foreign countries, where they were then converted into leg cuffs. In a report, the human rights organisation said: "Because the UK government does not require a licence to export handcuffs to the US, or any other country, there is no control on how British-made handcuffs are incorporated into other types of restraint equipment such as belly chains in countries like the US, even though such types of restraint equipment are banned in the UK."
It has highlighted the use of Hiatt leg irons as instruments of torture, claiming that they were used on prisoners in Malawi and Saudi Arabia.
Hiatt was investigated in 1999 and the Department of Trade and Industry said that "a possible loophole to control individual cuffs above a certain threshold was closed on August 31 2000".
In 2002, the Liberal Democrat MP David Chidgey complained to Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, that oversized handcuffs were still being exported by Hiatt. The government said it had issued no licences and had passed the matter on to HM Customs and Excise for investigation.
In 1986, Hiatt began a joint venture forming a separate firm in the US called Hiatt Thompson. It is understood that when US Customs officials visited Hiatt Thompson's headquarters in Bedford Park, Illinois, they found leg irons there with 'Made in England' stamped on them. However, the company replied that these items could have been old stock. Trade in leg irons is not banned in the US.
