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'End Guantanamo lawlessness'
11/06/2006 21:04 - (SA)
London - Amnesty International on Sunday called on the United States to "end the lawlessness" of its facility for security suspects at Guantanamo Bay after three detainees committed suicide.
The London-based human rights group also called for the results of the investigation into the deaths to be made public and both the inmates' families and their lawyers informed.
"The news that three detainees in Guantanamo have died as a result of apparent suicide is a further tragic reminder that the USA must end the lawlessness of the facility," it said in a statement.
"There have been numerous suicide attempts in the detention camp.?These are apparently the first that have been successful."
The group reiterated its call for the US-run camp in Cuba to be shut and for Washington to disclose fully all other prisoners detained as part of the so-called "war on terror". 'Act of desperation'
It also renewed its appeal for a full, independent commission of inquiry into all aspects of US detention and interrogation policies and practices with security suspects.
The calls were backed by the Muslim Council of Britain, the country's main umbrella group for Islamic organisations, which said the deaths were not an "assymetrical act of war", as the United States has claimed.
Instead, it said they were an "act of absolute desperation".
"These men had been kept in a legal limbo for several years now with no charges being brought against them, with no chance to clear their names before a court of law," said its secretary-general Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari.
"For a top US government official to now describe their deaths as some kind of 'PR move' is incredibly insensitive and indeed callous."
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