|
|
|
|
|
UN experts urge Guantanamo closure after suicides Five United Nations human rights experts on Wednesday urged the closure of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay after last week's suicides there that they said were predictable given the harsh conditions. The experts, who have repeatedly asked for the detention facility in Cuba to be shut, said the simultaneous suicides of three inmates on June 10 heightened concerns about the mental health of the camp's approximately 460 detainees. In a statement released in Geneva, the group said the three deaths were "to a certain extent foreseeable in light of the harsh and prolonged conditions of their detention and reinforces the need for the urgent closure of the detention center." The two Saudis and one Yemeni who hung themselves with clothes and bedsheets were the first prisoners to die at Guantanamo since the United States began holding terrorism suspects at the base in 2002. Facing indefinite detention, with none of the rights afforded formal prisoners of war or criminal suspects in the U.S. justice system, dozens of the detainees have undertaken hunger strikes and attempted suicide. The five envoys are: Leila Zerrougui, who reports on arbitrary detention, fellow Algerian Leandro Despouy, who covers the independence of judges, torture rapporteur Manfred Nowak of Austria, Pakistan's Asma Jahangir, who focuses on religious freedom and New Zealand's Paul Hunt, rapporteur for health. ---------------------------------------------------
Prison Planet.tv: The Premier Multimedia Subscription Package: Download and Share the Truth! Please help our fight against the New World Order by giving a donation. As bandwidth costs increase, the only way we can stay online and expand is with your support. Please consider giving a monthly or one-off donation for whatever you can afford. You can pay securely by either credit card or Paypal. Click here to donate. |
