US urged to end Guantanamo torture

[XXPANTHAXX]

US urged to end Guantanamo torture

Tuesday 26 April 2005 7:35 PM GMT

The US began using Guantanamo after Afghan invasion in 2001

Europe's top human rights body has called on the US to stop
torture and mistreatment of Guantanamo detainees, asking it
to either give the prisoners a fair trial or release them.

The parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe on
Tuesday asked the US government "to cease torturing and
mistreating detainees" at its facility in Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba.

"The US government has betrayed its own highest principles in
the zeal with which it has attempted to purse the war on
terror," it said.

"These errors have perhaps been most manifest in relation to
Guantanamo Bay," said the resolution passed by
parliamentarians of the pan-European body at a session in
Strasbourg.

Based on reports by legal and human rights organisations,
many if not all detainees have been subjected to inhuman
treatment in some cases amounting to torture, the resolution
said.

Occurrence

This has occurred as a direct result of official policy,
authorised at the very highest levels of government, the
resolution added.

The US began using its naval base at Guantanamo Bay as a
detention centre for "war on terror" suspects after the
invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

US forces ousted the Taliban government, an ally of the al-
Qaida group which claimed responsibility for the 11 September
attacks that killed nearly 3000 people in the United States.

The assembly said it supported the US efforts to fight
terrorism, but that they must be conducted in line with
international law.

The US conduct in Guantanamo has been "an insult to the
values of all civilised countries. We must respond firmly to
threats but not in an unjust manner," said British
parliamentarian Kevin McNamara at the session.

The assembly plans to pursue the issue through talks with the
US Congress. The United States has observer status at the 46-
member Council of Europe.