Amnesty: New Gitmo Facility Worst
Cell in Guantánamo's Camp 6
WASHINGTON, 5 April 2007 — Amnesty International said yesterday that a new facility at Guantanamo Bay held prisoners in even harsher conditions than the rest of the detention center and called for the camp to be shut down.
The rights watchdog described the camp as “one of the worst blemishes on the United States’ human rights record,” and said that keeping terrorist suspects in such “cruel” conditions undermined the country’s moral authority.
“Guantanamo Bay is the festering symbol of the Bush administration’s continued contempt for international law and disregard for human rights,” said Larry Cox, the executive director of Amnesty International USA.
The report, entitled “USA: Cruel and Inhuman — Conditions of Isolation for Detainees in Guantanamo Bay,” said conditions at the US Navy-run camp on the southeastern coast of Cuba were deteriorating.
“A new facility that opened in December 2006, known as Camp Six, has created even harsher and apparently more permanent conditions of extreme isolation and sensory deprivation,” Amnesty said.
Cox accused the administration of US President George W. Bush of using the cloak of national security to justify human rights violations.
“Perhaps President Bush needs to think again, because the voices calling for the closure of this disgrace to American values are only getting louder,” he said.
The report said that Guantanamo detainees were reportedly confined to windowless cells for 22 hours a day, only allowed to exercise at night and could go for days at a time without seeing daylight.
It said that it appeared that around 80 percent of the roughly 385 prisoners held at Guantanamo were in isolation cells.
“While the United States has an obligation to protect its citizens... that does not relieve the United States from its responsibilities to comply with human rights,” the report said.
“Statements by the Bush administration that these men are ‘enemy combatants,’ ‘terrorists’ or ‘very bad people’ do not justify the complete lack of due process rights,” the rights group added.
Amnesty reiterated its call for Guantanamo to be shut down and for inmates — many of whom are suspected Taleban and Al-Qaeda fighters detained in Afghanistan — either to be released or charged and sent to trial.
The rights watchdog described the camp as “one of the worst blemishes on the United States’ human rights record,” and said that keeping terrorist suspects in such “cruel” conditions undermined the country’s moral authority.
“Guantanamo Bay is the festering symbol of the Bush administration’s continued contempt for international law and disregard for human rights,” said Larry Cox, the executive director of Amnesty International USA.
The report, entitled “USA: Cruel and Inhuman — Conditions of Isolation for Detainees in Guantanamo Bay,” said conditions at the US Navy-run camp on the southeastern coast of Cuba were deteriorating.
“A new facility that opened in December 2006, known as Camp Six, has created even harsher and apparently more permanent conditions of extreme isolation and sensory deprivation,” Amnesty said.
Cox accused the administration of US President George W. Bush of using the cloak of national security to justify human rights violations.
“Perhaps President Bush needs to think again, because the voices calling for the closure of this disgrace to American values are only getting louder,” he said.
The report said that Guantanamo detainees were reportedly confined to windowless cells for 22 hours a day, only allowed to exercise at night and could go for days at a time without seeing daylight.
It said that it appeared that around 80 percent of the roughly 385 prisoners held at Guantanamo were in isolation cells.
“While the United States has an obligation to protect its citizens... that does not relieve the United States from its responsibilities to comply with human rights,” the report said.
“Statements by the Bush administration that these men are ‘enemy combatants,’ ‘terrorists’ or ‘very bad people’ do not justify the complete lack of due process rights,” the rights group added.
Amnesty reiterated its call for Guantanamo to be shut down and for inmates — many of whom are suspected Taleban and Al-Qaeda fighters detained in Afghanistan — either to be released or charged and sent to trial.
For the full report, see:
For more information about AI's campaign to Close Guantánamo, visit www.amnesty.org/closeguantanamo
Labels: Guantanamo Bay, Guantánamo Bay
posted by HRM Deborah of Israel and the Messenger of Peace at 9:02 PM
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