Close Guantánamo Bay.
The detention of “enemy combatants” at the US Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba has now entered its fifth year. Hundreds of people of around 30 different nationalities remain held in effect in a legal black hole, many without access to any court, legal counsel or family visits.
Many of them allege they have been subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Three detainees have died at the camp, after apparently committing suicide. Others have gone on prolonged hunger strikes, being kept alive only through painful force feeding measures.
Guantanamo Bay is a symbol of injustice and abuse.
Can someone tell me why it remains open, why these men are not given a trial and why it shouldn’t be shut down?
Five years Now! – No independent hearing; no family contact! Is This The American Way
By Khalid Al-Odah
Consider this. Over the course of the past five years, America, the most powerful country on earth, overthrew Saddam Hussein, a ruthless dictator. And after Saddam’s fall from power in 2003, US forces captured him, and he was tried, convicted and executed.
In those same five years, Pope John Paul II, Ronald Reagan and Yasser Arafat have died. Kuwait’s beloved ruler, Sheik Jaber Alsabah has passed away and we have a new ruler, a new crown prince, a new prime minister and a new parliament.
So much has happened in the past five years, and yet for my son Fawzi — detained in Guantánamo Bay since January 11, 2002 — time has stood still. Fawzi has spent his days in a 6.8ft x 8 ft cell, often in solitary confinement and denied all contact with his family. Even death row inmates in U.S. prisons are treated better than this. Fawzi’s treatment has irreparably scarred him and our family. And for what?
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