Guantánamo conditions 'worsening'

Conditions for detainees at the US military jail at Guantánamo Bay are deteriorating, with the majority held in solitary confinement, a new report says. Amnesty International said the often harsh and inhumane conditions at the camp were "pushing people to the edge." It called for the facility to be closed and for plans for "unfair" military commission trials to be abandoned. "Statements by the Bush administration that these men are 'enemy combatants,' 'terrorists' or 'very bad people' do not justify the complete lack of due process rights," the group said. Amnesty reiterated its call for detainees at the prison camp to be released or charged and sent to trial. The report, published on Mar. 29, said about 300 detainees are now being held at a new facility–known as Camp 5, Camp 6 and Camp Echo–comparable to "super-max" high security units in the US. The group said the facility had "created even harsher and apparently more permanent conditions of extreme isolation and sensory deprivation." It said the detainees were reportedly confined to windowless cells for 22 hours a day, only allowed to exercise at night and could go for days without seeing daylight. The organization's UK director, Kate Allen, described the process at Guantánamo as "a travesty of justice." "With many prisoners already in despair at being held in indefinite detention... some are dangerously close to full-blown mental and physical breakdown. "The US authorities should immediately stop pushing people to the edge with extreme isolation techniques and allow proper access for independent medical experts and human rights groups."