US should close Guantanamo Bay detention facility, says UN

The US should close its prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and avoid using secret detention facilities in its war on terror, a UN panel report released today said.

The US should close its prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and avoid using secret detention facilities in its war on terror, a UN panel report released today said.

In an 11-page final report on its review of US adherence to the world’s anti-torture treaty, the UN Committee Against Torture said detainees should not be returned to any state where they could face a ‘‘real risk’’ of being tortured. ‘‘The state party should cease to detain any person at Guantanamo Bay and close the detention facility,’’ said the panel of 10 independent experts on adherence to the 1984 UN Convention Against Torture.

US should also ensure that no one is detained in secret detention facilities under its control and disclose the existence of any such places, said the report. The committee said it was concerned that detainees were being held for protracted periods with insufficient legal safeguards and without judicial assessment of the justification for their detention.

Meanwhile, prisoners wielding improvised weapons clashed with guards trying to stop a detainee from committing suicide here, the military said today. The fight occurred on Thursday in a medium-security section as guards were responding to the fourth attempted suicide that day at the detention centre on the US Navy base, Navy Cmdr Robert Durand said.

–SAM CAGE