Washington, January 11: The UK-based human rights organization Amnesty International has strongly criticized the US for continuing to keep inmates at the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.
In a report published on Wednesday, ahead of the 10th anniversary of the opening of the infamous center, the rights group said the continued detention of inmates at Guantanamo detention facility is illegal, saying it represents “an attack on human rights.”
Prisoners at the US Navy center reportedly plan to mark the day with sit-ins, banners and a refusal of meals.
“Guantanamo has come to symbolize 10 years of a systematic failure by the USA to respect human rights in its response to the 9/11 attacks,” said Rob Freer, Amnesty International’s researcher on the US.
“The US government disregarded human rights from day one of the Guantanamo detentions. As we move into year 11 in the life of the detention facility, this failure continues,” he added.
On January 11, 2002, the US government under former US President George W. Bush transferred the first prisoners, or the so-called ‘terror suspects’, to Guantanamo. Almost 800 detainees have been brought to the prison camp since October 7, 2001, when Washington began the war on Afghanistan.
The US is accused of using torture techniques including simulated drowning known as water-boarding on the so-called terrorists, and of executing tens of detainees over the years for questionable crimes.
According to Amnesty International, of the 173 men currently detained at Guantanamo Bay only three have been convicted under a military commission system, “which failed to meet international fair trial standards”.
Upon taking office in 2008, US president Barak Obama signed an executive order to stop military commissions in order to close down the facility by 2010. However, this has not happened yet.
——Agencies