Guantánamo inmates ‘driven insane’
By Guy Dinmore in Washington
Published: January 10 2007 20:00 | Last updated: January 10 2007 20:00
Prisoners held at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba are being driven insane by a tightening of conditions and the situation of their indefinite detention without trial, according to lawyers and rights activists involved with the US camp.
The lawyers and activists also doubt whether the Bush administration intends to carry out its stated desire to close the facility.
Protesters around the world plan to mark Thursday’s fifth anniversary of the first delivery of detainees to Guantánamo with demonstrations calling for its closure. American anti-war activists and at least one former British prisoner intend to march to the perimeter of the US-held enclave in eastern Cuba.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, says the isolation regime at Guantánamo has tightened in recent months, piling the mental pressure on inmates who have “no fair procedure” that would lead to possible release.
Mr Roth told the Financial Times he had proposed to Angela Merkel, the German chancellor and chairman of the European Union presidency, that EU member states offered to take some of the detainees who cannot return to their home countries for fear of torture. In exchange the US would offer a concrete closure plan that would lead to trials, preferably before a court martial, of remaining prisoners.
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