US: The United Nations has said it will not accept an invitation to visit the US prison base at Guantanamo Bay unless its experts are allowed to talk to detainees. The US authorities have invited five UN human rights experts to spend one day at Guantanamo next month, but will not allow the visitors to meet detainees in private.
"We cannot accept the exclusion of private interviews with detainees as this would not only contravene the terms of reference for fact-finding missions . . . but also undermine the purpose of an objective and fair assessment of the situation of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay," the group of rights experts said in a statement.
The US administration has arranged numerous trips to Guantanamo for members of Congress and the media, but has only allowed representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and prisoners' lawyers to conduct private interviews.
"We are sure that the US government will fully understand and finally agree that UN investigators are not in a position to accept the sort of guided tours to Guantanamo which have been arranged in the past for members of Congress and media representatives," said Manfred Nowak, the UN's special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments or punishments.
Four years after it opened, more than 500 people are detained at Guantanamo, 27 of whom are on hunger strike and at least 22 of whom have attempted suicide.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that Jumah Dossari, who had been in solitary confinement for almost two years, attempted suicide two weeks ago while his lawyer was visiting him.
Most of those held at Guantanamo have not been charged with any offence and Mr Dossari's lawyer, Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, said that many detainees would prefer to die than be held there indefinitely.
US military personnel are believed to be force-feeding most of those on hunger strike through tubes inserted into the nose.
Officials claim that the hunger strikes are a publicity stunt. "This technique, hunger-striking, is consistent with the al-Qaeda training and reflects the detainees' attempts to elicit media attention and bring pressure on the United States government," Lt-Col Jeremy Martin, the spokesman for Joint Task Force Guantanamo, told the Washington Post.
Mr Nowak said that his team of UN rights experts still hoped to visit Guantanamo in December, but he described their demand for private access to detainees as "non-negotiable".
"They said they have nothing to hide. If they have nothing to hide, why should we not be able to talk to detainees in private?" he added.