CAMP X-RAY (Guantanamo Bay): The prisoners are gone. Camp X-ray is empty. A huge banana rat stares at the media team that enters the narrow cell where the inmates lived. Creepers cover the barbed wires that separate one cell from the other, spreading over to the roof.

There was no cover from the scorching, tropical sun when the inmates still lived there, except canvas sheets. Guantanamo Bay’s little enclave that houses all seven facilities for Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners can be a desert except when it rains, which is not often.

Dozens of thorns stick to their trousers as journalists wade through knee-deep grass and bushes to reach the cells.

The narrow alley, covered with barbed wires from all sides, stands out as the media team gets closer to the cells. This particular alley was made famous across the world by pictures that showed handcuffed prisoners squatting there in orange jump suits.

“It’s very primitive,” acknowledged Maj. Jeffrey J. Weir while briefing the journalists. “But the detainees were here only briefly and moved out as soon as new facilities were built.”

The camp was built in 1994 for Haitian refugees and was used to keep Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects when they first arrived at Guantanamo in January 2002. They were moved out in April.

But the four months they spent here brought so much bad publicity for American authorities that they are still struggling to wipe it clean.

“Looks like an animal cage,” said Salmy Hashim, a Malaysian journalist who visited the camp more than three years after it was closed.

“These are dangerous people who would kill you in a heart-beat,” said Maj-Gen. Jay W. Hood, commander of the Joint Task Force that looks after Guantanamo’s prison facilities.

The general, who came here 19 months ago, has helped improve the situation and the US image. His predecessor, Gen. Geoffrey Miller, however, is often blamed for the excesses the media say were committed at Camp X-ray. Gen. Miller also was commander of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq during the period a large number of Iraqi inmates were abused there.

But his successor does not blame Gen. Miller for the violations attributed to him.

“We are consistently studying how we can do it better and wish to demonstrate to those we are holding that we are determined to do it right, and over time they will recognize it,” said Gen. Hood.

But Camp X-ray definitely was not a place where much thought seemed to have been given to the rights granted to a prisoner under relevant international agreements.

Even in October, the journalists were sweating profusely.

There was no bed, although the prisoners were given mattresses to sleep on the narrow wooden floors. They had to defecate in buckets or wait for their turns to be taken to the toilet.

Later, metal pipes with narrow holes were added to their cells for the prisoners to urinate.

The inmates did have access to primary medical facilities and some were examined by a qualified doctor for the first time in years.

“Dealing with terrorism suspects was a new experience for us too, and we tried to do the best we could,” said Maj. Weir. “They got proper meals. We had a little hospital. They could shower twice a week. It was not perfect but it was not as bad as the media made it look.”

“Are two showers a week enough in this heat?” asked a journalist.

Gen. Hood also complained that it was unfair to publish pictures taken in January 2002 to depict the situation now. “It pains me when I see the photos of January 2002,” he said, while urging the media to recognize the positive change that has happened since.