Many, I’m sure, will have been horrified by the stories of the Britons who have returned from Guantanamo Bay this week. These men, who were kept beyond the reach of friends, family or justice for two years have now been released without charge.

For those of you who have not read the reports of the appalling treatment they received from their captors, here are some of the extracts from the interviews by David Rose of the Observer newspaper;

“After more than 200 interrogation sessions each, with the CIA, FBI, Defence Intelligence Agency, MI5 and MI6, America has been forced to admit its claims that the three were terrorists who supported al-Qaeda had no foundation.”

“That their first interrogations by British investigators - from both MI5 and the SAS - took place in December 2001 and January 2002 when they were still being held at a detention camp in Afghanistan. Guns were held to their heads during their questioning in Afghanistan by American soldiers, and physical abuse and beatings were rife. At this point, after weeks of near starvation as prisoners of the Northern Alliance, all three men were close to death.”

“Before boarding a military aircraft they were dressed in earmuffs, goggles and surgical masks. Inside, they were chained to the floor with no backrests, and even when they requested the toilet, they were not released from their chains. 'Basically people wet their pants. You were pissing all over your legs.'”

“The cells were about the size of a king-size mattress, made of mesh and metal, exposed to the relentless tropical heat, with no air conditioning. They contained a hole in the floor for a toilet, a tap producing yellow water which was so low they had to kneel to use it, and a narrow metal cot. Apart from interrogation, the only break in this confined monotony were showers and 20 minutes' exercise, two or three times a week.”

“The horror of their story needs no embellishment. One day, perhaps, there will be an inquiry into Guantanamo. Until then, some of their allegations - which, it can be assumed, America is likely to deny - cannot be corroborated. However, many of the experiences they describe, including gunpoint interrogations in Afghanistan and random brutality both there and in Guantanamo, have been related in identical terms by other freed detainees. Last October I spent four days at Guantanamo. Much of what the three men say about the regime and the camp's physical conditions I either saw or heard from US officials.”

Indeed, Colin Powell has already denied the allegations of mistreatment, saying Americans "don't abuse people who are in our care".

If any doubts about the illegitimacy of holding these prisoners, so called “illegal combatants”, still remained, these stories dispel it. Confessions and convictions in the camp are being extracted using torture, solitary confinement and sensory deprivation to elicit confessions, with privileges and improved conditions for information on other inmates. Such an approach cannot fail but to create false convictions. But even these men fought for the Taliban, fought for Al-Quaida, this cannot be excused. WE ARE MEANT TO BE THE DEMOCRACIES. We should expect higher standards of our representatives. Do we believe in the rule of law? Do we believe in human rights? If not, then we are nothing but the rich countries.

Camp X-ray seems beyond the reach of justice. These Britons have been released because their case would have come before the US Supreme Court next month – and a ruling from the Court that the Camp was unlawful would have been disastrous for the US administration. But for the majority, especially non-western inmates, there is no hope. They are in limbo. Political pressure is required.

We would like to hold a symbolic vigil on Sundays on Princess Street. The Women in Black movement that has a silent vigil every Saturday estimates that some 5,000 people see them every hour. We could also get some press coverage. The idea would be to have a Guantanamo cell – a cage, and volunteers to be inmates – dressed in the orange jumpsuits, manacled, hooded. The Edinburgh Amnesty Group apparently have a cage that may be suitable. People could volunteer for an hour. Their replacement would get dressed somewhere private nearby, and led to the cage, so that the image of people clambering into jumpsuits in the street did not detract from the anonymity, the dehumanisation, which these suits are meant to enforce.

If you are interested in getting involved in this, please contact Tom & Sue Allan  W_T_Allan@yahoo.com