Credible Reports of Torture at Guantánamo--Bush Administration Declines Human Rights Experts Access
Four U.N. human rights experts said Thursday that they will investigate all aspects of detention at the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, where some 500 prisoners are being held without charges, despite the U.S. government's failure to respond to repeated requests to allow a visit there.
The investigators said they had received no reply from Washington to the request they made over a year ago to be permitted to visit Guantánamo, where the George W. Bush administration has held foreign terror suspects with alleged ties to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban since early 2002.
These men, who the U.S. government describes as "enemy combatants", are not recognized as prisoners of war, have been informed of no charges, and have no right to a legal defense.
The request to be allowed to visit was based on "information from reliable sources of serious allegations of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees, arbitrary detention, violations of their right to health and their due process rights," said the U.N. specialists.
Despite the lack of cooperation from U.S. authorities, the investigators said they would carry out a joint investigation into "all issues around Guantánamo Bay detention facilities," by studying reports and evidence from credible sources, including declassified U.S. documents.
The results of the inquiry will be presented at the next session of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, slated for March and April 2006.
- posted by geoff @ #