UN: Inhuman treatment at Guantánamo

UN Inhuman treatment at Guantanamo
full screen The United States receives harsh criticism in a new UN report for how it conducts operations at the Guantánamo military prison. Archive image. Photo: Alex Brandon/AP/TT

The United Nations criticizes the United States for the operation of the Guantánamo military prison in Cuba. In a new report, the treatment of the 30 men still held captive is described as “vicious, inhumane and condescending”.

Fionnuala Ni Aoláin, who wrote the report, after being the first UN observer to be allowed by the US to visit the prison, said at a press conference that she is calling on the US to close the prison.

The report was released on Monday in the United States and in it criticism is directed at the United States’ operation of the prison on several points.

Among other things, the author of the report expresses great concern about the inability of the United States to provide rehabilitation for the prisoners who were subjected to torture and still suffer from it. She writes that the resources at Guantánamo are not sufficient to deal with the complex and acute mental and physical health problems that the inmates have.

In 2003, 600 people were detained at Guantánamo during the US war on terror, many of them without prosecution or the possibility of legal action on their situation. Accusations that torture and illegal interrogation methods have occurred have been directed against the United States over the years.

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