The 5-Minute Briefing: Calls to close Guantanamo Bay
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Your support makes all the difference.Why is Guantanamo Bay becoming a headache for George Bush?
The international outcry over conditions at Guantanamo Bay reached a new crescendo last month when Amnesty International termed the facility the "Gulag of our times" in its annual report. President Bush called the characterisation "absurd", but failed to dampen the clamour of criticism. Things got worse a week ago when the Pentagon confirmed incidents of the Koran being desecrated in the prison, including one report of the holy book being splashed with a guard's urine. The Pentagon reports came after Newsweek retracted a story in which it reported that the Koran had been flushed down a lavatory. The report sparked protests in which at least 15 were killed.
What is Guantanamo Bay?
It is a naval facility on Cuban territory that was ceded in perpetuity to the United States under treaties signed with Havana in 1903 and 1934. Immediately after the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001, the US began building a detention centre there to hold what it described as "enemy combatants". There are currently about 540 detainees, most of whom were captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002.
Why are they there?
The US argues the inmates are being held because they allegedly belong to organisations dedicated to harming America by terrorist attack. Keeping them in Guantanamo isolates them in the highest possible security. The prison to all intents and purposes operates like an aircraft carrier on the high seas. All supplies have to be flown in from mainland America.
What is the fuss about?
The US has essentially created a thoroughly murky parallel justice system under which to deal with these prisoners. They are being held without formal charges being laid against them and without automatic access to legal representation - privileges that would be automatic if they were being tried in the federal US court system. Many argue that this is a gross violation of America's human rights obligations. About 200 prisoners have been released, however, since the prison opened, including five who were returned to Britain. The Koran incident has fanned concern of mistreatment and illegal torture of the detainees as the US tries to squeeze intelligence from them. Memories of the torture at Abu Ghraib in Iraq are being reawakened.
Will it be there for ever?
Maybe not. Senior figures, including senior Democrats in Washington and the former US President Jimmy Carter, are now beginning to call for the facility to be closed, arguing that it is tarnishing America's reputation and fuelling the recruitment of new terrorists to fight the US. This week, President Bush left open the possibility that it could be closed if a different means is found to deal with the detainees. But the Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, visiting Brussels yesterday, seemed to play down the possibility, saying that information gained from detainees had saved many lives in America and elsewhere.
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