Amnesty criticises delay in closing Guantánamo
Press Release
18 November 2009
Amnesty International Ireland has criticised the delay in closing Guantánamo Bay Detention Centre after US President Barack Obama admitted today that his administration would not meet his deadline for its closure. The organisation called on the US government to redouble its efforts to resolve the future of detainees still held in Guantánamo.
“Over recent months, the US authorities have allowed the politics of fear to trump human rights”, said Colm O’Gorman, Executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland.
“Now, as should have been the case from day one, the US should resolve these detentions by either bringing the detainees to fair trial or immediately releasing them.”
On 22 January 2009, President Obama signed an executive order committing his administration to resolving the cases of the detainees held at Guantánamo “as promptly as possible”, and to closing the detention facility “no later than a year from the date of this order”.
In his comments today, President Obama would not put an exact new date on closure, stating only that he anticipated it would happen sometime later next year, and adding that it would “depend on cooperation from Congress”.
Hopes for an end to the Guantánamo detentions have receded over recent months as members of the US Congress sought to block the closure of the facility, and the administration has been slow to charge detainees.
Since President Obama took office, 26 detainees have been transferred out of Guantánamo, leaving 215 still there.
“Two of these prisoners have been resettled in Ireland,” Mr O’Gorman said. “The Irish Government has made a practical contribution to shutting Guantánamo down and we would ask that they build on this by encouraging President Obama to redouble his efforts.”
Amnesty International has long called for the Guantánamo detainees to be brought to trial in an independent and impartial court – not a military commission – or immediately released.
It has also repeatedly called for the USA not to seek the death penalty in any case.
One detainee has been transferred to face trial in a federal court in New York and the US administration has announced that another five will also be transferred to the city for such trials, with the likelihood that the death penalty will be sought against them.
The US Attorney General has also said the administration has decided to refer another five cases back to the Pentagon for trial by military commission.
In his 22 January order requiring his administration to ensure “prompt and appropriate” resolution of each and every Guantánamo case and to close the Guantánamo facility within a year, President Obama pointed to the “significant concerns raised by these detentions, both within the United States and internationally”.
“Those concerns have not gone away, and will be reignited by President Obama’s comments today”, said Mr O’Gorman.
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