Washington, January 26: The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has vehemently condemned Washington’s reluctance to prosecute former US officials over illegal interrogation techniques in the country’s prisons.
In its 2011 World Report published on Monday, the New York-based HRW harshly criticized the White House for its failure to set up inquiry commissions to investigate numerous cases of mistreatment of detainees at US prisons namely the notorious detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, AFP reported.
The 649-page report brought to the fore the overhanging issue of illegal interrogation techniques at prisons, saying there is overwhelming evidence that senior officials at the Bush administration authorized techniques tantamount to torture.
The leading rights group also bristled at US President Barack Obama for bulking at the promise he made on the campaign trail in 2008 to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
Obama signed a major defense bill on January 7, effectively preventing the closure of the US military prison, where 173 suspects are held in captivity with no hope of a fair trial.
The Guantanamo detention facility was initially established at a US naval base in Cuba on January 11, 2002 by the administration of former US President George W. Bush. Almost 800 people have been detained at the prison since it was opened.
For years, the HRW has repeatedly called on the US government to close the prison, ever since the first reports came out based on which “war-on-terror” suspects held at the detention facility were being mistreated by weatherboarding, sleep deprivation, beatings, and confinement in cold cells.
The HRW has also stated that the United States continues to hold nearly 50 suspects at Guantanamo facility for an indefinite period, and even without a fair trial.
——–Agencies