Annan calls for Gitmo closure
UNITED NATIONS – Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday said the United States should close the prison at Guantanamo Bay for terrorism suspects as soon as possible, backing a key conclusion of a U.N.-appointed independent panel.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan rejected the call to shut the camp, saying the military treats all detainees humanely and “these are dangerous terrorists that we’re talking about.”
The panel’s report, released Thursday in Geneva, said the United States must close the detention facility “without further delay” because it is effectively a torture camp where prisoners have no access to justice.
Annan told reporters he didn’t necessarily agree with everything in the report, but “the basic premise, that we need to be careful to have a balance between effective action against terrorism and individual liberties and civil rights, I think is valid.”
The 54-page report, summarizing an investigation by five U.N. experts, accuses the United States of practices that “amount to torture” and demanded detainees be allowed a fair trial or be freed. The panel, which had sought access to Guantanamo Bay since 2002, refused a U.S. offer for three experts to visit the camp in November after being told they could not interview detainees.
Manfred Nowak, the U.N. investigator for torture who was one of the panel’s experts, told the Associated Press in Geneva that the detainees at Guantanamo “should be released or brought before an independent court.”
“That should not be done in Guantanamo Bay, but before ordinary U.S. courts, or courts in their countries of origin or perhaps an international tribunal,” he said.
The United States is holding about 490 men at the military detention center. They are accused of links to Afghanistan’s ousted Taliban regime or to al-Qaida, but only a few have been charged.
The U.N. investigators said photographic evidence – corroborated by testimony of former prisoners – showed detainees shackled, chained and hooded. Prisoners were beaten, stripped and shaved if they resisted, they said.
The report’s findings were based on interviews with former detainees, public documents, media reports, lawyers and questions answered by the U.S. government.
Some of the interrogation techniques – particularly the use of dogs, exposure to extreme temperatures, sleep deprivation and prolonged isolation – caused extreme suffering, the report said.
“Such treatment amounts to torture, as it inflicts severe pain or suffering on the victims for the purpose of intimidation and/or punishment,” the report said.