Anti-Guantanamo demo held in DC

On Tuesday, 173 human rights activists, each wearing a black hood and an orange jumpsuit to represent the remaining prisoners at the US detention facility, participated in a demonstration organized by Amnesty International, Witness Against Torture, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and several other human rights groups, The Washington Post reported.

On the ninth anniversary of the establishment of the detention center, the protestors called for the closure of the prison camp.

They also criticized US President Barack Obama for breaking his promise to close the detention center down, which he made on the campaign trail in 2008.

However, in a dramatic reversal of his campaign promise, 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 George W. Bush. Almost 800 people have been detained at the prison since it was opened.

Human Rights Watch has been calling on the US government to close the prison for years, ever since the first reports that "war-on-terror" suspects held at the detention facility were being mistreated through weatherboarding, sleep deprivation, beatings, and confinement in cold cells.

"It's time for Congress to work with the Obama administration to close this facility, repatriate the nearly 100 men who have been cleared for release -- many of whom should never have been held in the first place -- and prosecute those detainees who deserve to be brought to justice," Human Rights First said in a statement issued to mark the anniversary.

Amnesty International policy director Tom Parker expressed deep concern over the indefinite detention of the prisoners, saying it is a violation of human rights and international law.

He also called the prison camp "a global symbol for injustice and abuse."

"The idea that you can't hold people indefinitely without trial has been around since the Middle Ages. It is a basic human right. President Obama continues to promise change, but what his administration has actually delivered is one of the darkest chapters in America's recent history," Parker stated.


(2011-1-12/presstv)