[NYTr] Day Against Torture: Amnesty Int'l Calls for Closure of Gitmo Gulag

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Notimex via Granma International - Jan 11, 2008
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2008/enero/vier11/Amnesty.html

Amnesty International calls for U.S. to close down Guantánamo prison

MADRID, January 11. (Notimex).— Amnesty International (AI) today called
for the government of the United States to close the prison at the
Guantánamo military base in Cuba and give the location of the 38
prisoners who are believed to be held in secret detention centers.

At an event held outside the U.S. embassy in Spain, Esteban Beltrán
–director of AI in Spain – and former Guantánamo prisoner Ruhal Ahmed,
presented a letter signed by 170 Spanish parliamentarians supporting
the closure of the military prison.

In a statement to the press, Beltrán commented that on the sixth
anniversary of the arrival of the first prisoners in Guantánamo, AI
will hand in a petition to the government of the United States, signed
by 1,200 parliamentarians from different countries around the world
protesting their opposition to the prison.

Beltrán explained that events of this kind are to take place outside
U.S. embassies in different parts of the world, with the aim that,
aside from the White House, these signatures will also reach the
presidential hopefuls in that country.

He stated that "this prison in Guantánamo is the tip of the iceberg
that has set back U.S. policy on human rights 60 years thanks to the
Military Commissions Act, passed last October, which legalizes torture."

He expressed his regret that despite the fact that the petition to
close the prison at Guantánamo is international, achieving this
objective would not solve the problem as it is already known that there
are other secret detention centers.

He confirmed that according to information from AI, some 38 prisoners
from different parts of the world (including Spanish citizen Mustafá
Setmarián Nazar) are being imprisoned in these secret centers.

He added that there are still some 300 prisoners in Guantanámo from a
total of 800 who originally arrived there, and that 19 prisoners have
arrived at the military base in the last 15 months.

The head of the organization in Spain also mentioned that they are set
to stage other events in order to ensure that this subject is tackled
in the presidential campaigns in the United States.

Translated by Granma International