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VOA News - audio activity
Amnesty International Decries
Conditions at Guantanamo
Written by Michael
Drudge
18 November 2005
Listen to the report
The human rights group Amnesty
International says the United
States should open the Guantanamo
terrorist detention center to
unhindered international inspections,
or else close it down.
The call from Amnesty International
follows an announcement from United
Nations human rights experts that
they have cancelled a visit to
the U.S.-run camp in Cuba. U.N.
officials say Washington had denied
them unrestricted access to Guantanamo
detainees.
U.S. officials have strongly denied
allegations that prisoners at
the facility are being mistreated.
U.S. officials also point out
that the International Committee
of the Red Cross has already been
given access to interview Guantanamo
detainees to monitor the conditions
at the camp.
The Secretary-General of Amnesty
International, Irene Khan, says
the development fuels concern
about the treatment of Islamic
terrorist suspects held at Guantanamo.
"We call on the U.S. government
to stop blocking meaningful access
to independent experts and to
the United Nations to the Guantanamo
detention center. Our demand is
simple. Shut down Guantanamo,
or open it up," said Ms.
Khan.
Ms. Khan says her organization,
working with other human rights
activists, has gathered evidence
that the United States and some
of its allies are using abusive
tactics to try to gather information
from suspected terrorists.
"Torture, ill-treatment,
incommunicado and secret detention
are all prohibited under international
law," she added. "Disappearances
are crimes under international
law, yet all are being committed
with impunity by governments,
including the United States, which
is the self-professed defender
of democracy and freedom around
the world."
Ms. Khan says her organization
strongly condemns terrorist attacks
against civilians as gross abuses
of human rights. But she says
the perpetrators and their accomplices
should be charged, tried and punished
in accordance with international
human rights standards.
Amnesty International and the
British-based legal charity Reprieve
are sponsoring a three-day conference
in London to examine the use of
torture, secret detentions and
other controversial methods in
the war on terrorism.
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