Guantanamo cell tours US

A human rights watchdog has launched a unique nationwide campaign to pressure the Bush administration to close the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay. Amnesty International said this week its activists have planned a countrywide trip with an exhibit depicting Guantanamo cells where hundreds of foreigners are facing indefinite detentions without trial. "[We] won't stop until everyone held at Guantanamo is given the chance to defend themselves in an impartial court of law or set free," said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty's US chapter in Washington, DC. Starting their campaign in Miami on May 8, activists displayed a replica of a Guantanamo prison cell with life-size human silhouettes cut from cardboard painted in orange, the color of jumpsuits worn by Guantanamo prisoners. Organizers said they have arranged the prison cell exhibit because most Americans don't understand the inhuman conditions that prisoners at Guantanamo are suffering from while they remain uncertain about any possible trial or release. "The government has made it impossible for people to get to Guantanamo to see this, so we wanted to bring a bit of the reality to the public," said Cox. "To stand inside this cell gives them some sense of the psychological hell of being held in a box for years." Despite protests by human rights groups and international condemnation, the Bush administration continues to defend indefinite detentions by saying that Guantanamo is outside the US territory so constitutional protections do not apply, an argument that has been consistently challenged by United Nations experts and human rights groups at home and abroad. In May 2006, a UN panel that monitors compliance with the world's anti-torture treaty urged the United States to close the Guantanamo prison and avoid using secret detention facilities in what George W. Bush and his allies call the "war on terror." The administration dismissed those arguments, saying the UN experts lacked accurate information. Last December, a UN investigator said he strongly suspected the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of using torture on prisoners at Guantanamo. Martin Scheinin, the United Nations' special rapporteur on protecting human rights while countering terrorism, added that many prisoners were likely not being prosecuted in order to keep the abuse from emerging at trial. President George W. Bush says the United States does not engage in torture. However, he remains unwilling to disclose what interrogation methods are being used at Guantanamo and elsewhere. Currently, there are about 270 inmates at Guantanamo prison. The US military authorities say they have plans to prosecute about 80 of them. Initially, the authorities had put prisoners in cells made of razor-wire, but now they have built some cells with concrete and steel. Amnesty said it hopes the new campaign will help build further pressure on the Bush administration to reconsider its policy on extrajudicial detentions. Recently, the groups' initiatives against Guantanamo brought some results, such as the release of Al-Jazeera's photo journalist Sami al Hajj. On May 1, al Hajj was released from Guantanamo Bay prison after six and a half years in detention. He was a focus of Amnesty's write-a-thon in December and was "adopted" by the groups' member across the United States. Al Hajj was assigned by the Qatar-based television station to cover the conflict in Afghanistan. While traveling in Pakistan, he was stopped by Pakistani police, detained, and then handed over to US authorities. US military officials took al Hajj to Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, and ultimately to Guantanamo. The journalist was never charged with a crime, yet was held and allegedly tortured for over six years. Al Hajj is now back in Sudan, his home country. Published reports from Sudan suggest that his health was in such bad condition that he had to be carried away on a stretcher after arrival at the Khartoum airport last week. Human rights groups have organized a series of marches and rallies over the past six years calling for the administration and Congress to end the detention of foreign prisoners at Guantanamo. Cox said his organization's campaign has drawn massive support from other like-minded organizations, including the country's oldest advocacy group, the American Civil Liberties Union, as well as the American Bar Association. "We will show visitors what it's like to experience the harsh realities of illegal detention and prolonged isolation," Cox said, adding that the campaign would allow visitors to record 30-second videos protesting illegal detention from inside a cell.