USA: Reaction to plans to expand Guantánamo camp

News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty International

AI Index: AMR 51/099/2005 17 June 2005

USA: Reaction to plans to expand Guantánamo camp

Following a week of mixed signals from the US Administration about the future of the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, Amnesty International said that the Administration's announcement that it is to expand the prison is the wrong decision and will fuel worldwide concern over the stories of torture and ill-treatment, religious humiliation and arbitrary detention that are seeping from the facility.

President Bush should close Guantánamo and disclose the situation in the USA's shadowy network of detention centres around the globe. An independent investigation into US policies and practices on detention and interrogation, including torture and ill-treatment, would reassure the world that the US administration has nothing to hide.

Guantánamo has become a symbol of abuse and represents a system of detention that is betraying the best US values and undermines international standards. This is not the time to talk about expansion of Guantánamo camp. It is time to close Guantánamo and disclose the rest.

ENDS

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