4 July 2007
2000 days of Guantánamo
4 July is a day for celebration in the USA. It's the anniversary of its Declaration of Independence which also enshrines these principles: "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." (Extract from the US Declaration of Independence)
The bitter irony is that, this year, 4 July also marks 2,000 days since the US administration transferred the first "war on terror" detainees to Guantánamo.
Approximately 375 detainees remain held in Guantánamo, many in conditions that amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
US authorities have asserted that between 60 and 80 of these detainees will eventually face trial by military commission, a substandard and discriminatory system of justice that Amnesty International is calling on the USA to abandon.
At least 15 "high value" detainees have been transferred to Guantánamo in the past year from secret CIA custody, affirming Guantánamo's central role in the USA's network of unlawful detentions in the "war on terror".
Each day that Guantánamo stays open is one day too long.
Read More
Report: Cruel and inhuman: conditions of isolation for detainees at Guantánamo BayFact-sheet: Guantanamo timeline (pdf)
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