Pressure to close Guantanamo rises

GENEVA - The United States today came under mounting international pressure to close its Guantanamo prison, with UN investigators saying detainees there faced treatment amounting to torture.

In a 40-page report, which had already been largely leaked, five United Nations special envoys said the United States was violating a host of human rights, including a ban on torture, arbitrary detention and the right to a fair trial.

The findings could fuel anger among Arabs already incensed by images of abuse of Iraqi inmates at Baghdad's U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison newly broadcast by Australian television.

"The United States government should close the Guantanamo Bay detention facilities without further delay," the human rights rapporteurs declared.

Until that happened, the US government should "refrain from any practice amounting to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment", they added.

UN Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour, who has frequently urged the United States to try the detainees or free them, told the BBC in London that the jail should be shut.

Many of the 500 inmates of the prison at the US naval base in Cuba have been held for four years without trial. The prisoners were mainly detained in Afghanistan.

Adding its voice to the clamour, the European parliament voted overwhelmingly on Thursday for a resolution urging the prison be closed and inmates given a fair trail.

The White House, calling the Guantanamo detainees "dangerous terrorists", dismissed the report as a reworking of past allegations and said that inmates were humanely treated.

It "appears to be a rehash of some of the allegations that have been made by lawyers for some of the detainees and we know that al Qaeda detainees are trained in trying to disseminate false allegations", said spokesman Scott McClellan.

Deaf ears

He also indicated that the calls to close the jail would fall on deaf ears.

"These are dangerous terrorists that we're talking about that are there and I think we've talked about that issue before and nothing's changed in terms of our views," McClellan added.

But Amnesty International backed the call for shutting down Guantanamo, which it said represented "just the tip of the iceberg" of US-run detention facilities worldwide.

"The US can no longer make the case, morally or legally, for keeping it open," the London-based group said.

Harsh treatment, such as placing detainees in solitary confinement, stripping them naked, subjecting them to severe temperatures, and threatening them with dogs could amount to torture, which is banned in all circumstances, the report said.

"The excessive violence used in many cases during transportation ... and forced-feeding of detainees on hunger strike must be assessed as amounting to torture," it added.

The five investigators said they were particularly concerned by attempts by the US administration to "redefine" the nature of torture to allow certain interrogation techniques.

Washington, which denies any international laws are being broken, accused the UN investigators of acting like prosecution lawyers with the report, selecting only those elements that backed their case.

Washington also denies that the force-feeding of inmates on hunger strike, which was undertaken to save their lives, amounted to cruel treatment.

The five UN investigators, who include Manfred Nowak, special rapporteur on torture, and Leila Zerrougui, chairwoman of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, said the findings were based on interviews with past detainees, lawyers and replies to questions put to the US government.

The five turned down a US offer to visit the detention centre late last year because Washington would not allow them to interview individual detainees.

- REUTERS