Amnesty and UN Human Rights report are calling for the closure of the US
illegal base at Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba. This is fine, however, if so the 500 or so prisoners will be transferred to other US prison camps.

According to an AI's last year statement, there are approx. 70 thousand
prisoners (of the so called war on terror) all around the world held either in US camps or at the behest of the US Adm. Therefore, it is imperative that we call for an end to the occupation of Iraq, the closure of US Bases in Iraq and all around the world.

Human rights advocates should also be calling for the release of all those
imprisoned under the so called 'war on terror' including our own David Hicks, Ahmed Jamal, Talal Adree and Mohamed Abbass.

Marlene Obeid
Justice for Hicks & Habib

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NZ Investigator Stands By Scathing Guantanamo Bay Report

A New Zealand expert on physical and mental health has stood by findings that US detention camp Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba, should be shut down.

Professor Paul Hunt, of both the University of Waikato and the University of Essex, was part of a five-member team appointed by the UN Human Rights Commission to investigate conditions at the "war on terror" detention camp.

The group also included Leila Zerrougui, an expert on arbitrary detention; Leandro Despouy, expert on judicial independence; Manfred Nowak, an expert on torture; and Asma Jahangir, an expert on freedom of religion.

The US is currently holding about 490 men at the camp who are accused of having links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime or the al Qaeda terror group, though only a handful have been charged since January 2001.

The team investigating the detention camp concluded that the United States should bring all prisoners to an independent trial or release them.

The authors did not visit the camp because the US government refused them access to inmates, so their report was based on "credible" accounts of life at Guantanamo Bay.

The Americans agreed that three of the authors could visit the camp but could not speak, either privately or publicly, to detainees.

"That was unacceptable to us," Prof Hunt said.

The government did, however, reply to a detailed questionnaire supplied by the report team.

The US government described the report as a "discredit" to the United Nations.

If the camp was not closed, the authors believed that detainees should have the opportunity to test the lawfulness of their incarceration.

Abusive treatment of prisoners should stop, and conditions generally should be improved and UN inspectors should be allowed in, Prof Hunt said.

"It would been a dereliction of duty if we'd closed our eyes to Guantanamo Bay."

The report will be presented to the United Nations in a few weeks' time where decisions will be made on what steps to take next.

The team was appointed by the commission to the three-year project. They worked independently, with expenses covered but receiving no payment from the UN.

SOURCE: Stuff.co.nz