WASHINGTON, May 20: Reacting to a UN report which urged the US to close its prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Bush administration has said it is willing to do so once legal questions about the detainees’ status are resolved.
In a report issued on Friday, the UN Committee Against Torture also concluded that indefinite confinement of terror suspects at Guantanamo amounts to torture.
Both the White House and State Department described the observation as ‘disappointing’ and denied any US abuse or torture of prisoners, at Guantanamo or anywhere else.
Spokesman for the two main wings of the US administration assured the UN and others demanding Guantanamo’s closure that Washington also ‘wishes to eventually close’ the controversial prison facility.
Both the White House and State Department referred to a recent statement by President Bush that he would like to close the Guantanamo prison camp, but that he was awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on whether inmates could face military tribunals.
State Department’s spokesman Sean McCormack said the US did not want to be the world’s jailer. But he said those who criticized America did not recognize the fact that Guantanamo facility housed some very dangerous people.
State Department Legal Adviser John Bellinger, who led the US delegation at hearings that led to the UN report, told journalists there were factual errors in some of the committee’s conclusions, and that it overlooked remedial steps taken by the US in response to previous criticism:
Mr Bellinger said the committee overstepped its mandate by recommending that Guantanamo be closed. He also said indefinite detention did not constitute torture under international law.
He said despite disappointment with the report, the US would continue cooperation with the UN panel, and had no intention of pulling out of the 1984 UN Convention Against Torture under which it operated.
In a recent report sent to the UN, Amnesty International said torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees by US forces was widespread and in many cases sanctioned by high-level government officials.
“Evidence continues to emerge that prisoners held by the US are subjected to torture in American-run facilities in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and other locations,” said the report.
