UN demands access to Guantanamo detainees

[cal04]

UN human rights experts will not travel to the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba next month unless they are allowed to talk freely with prisoners and guards. The UN's special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, says after a year and a half, the US Government finally agreed to the visit.

However, the Government has restricted it to one day and has yet to authorise meetings with prisoners. Mr Nowak says US Defence Secretary Donald "Rumsfeld said private interviews with detainees is for him out of question".

"For us it's definitely a pre-condition and I sincerely hope that he will change his opinion and give permission because it's the only way to conduct an objective fact-finding," he said. Mr Nowak says he is still waiting for an official response from the US Government on the authorisation to speak with prisoners. He warns that without it the UN group would not go to Guantanamo on December 6.

"If we are not receiving clear assurances that the United States
Government will fully comply with the general United Nations terms of references for a fact-finding mission, we will not go," Mr Nowak said. However even if the UN group does not visit the military prison it will still complete its report on Guantanamo for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200511/s1498722.htm

[tsuki]

1. First the report on poverty in the US, and now demands to

visit detainees. I am beginning to feel kinda third world.

[maryallen]

2. Who made Rummy God?

How did we end up with Co-Presidents -- Rumsfeld and Cheney -- and neither of them was elected?

[Jim Sagle]

3. Neither was w.