WASHINGTON: On the eve of the ten-year anniversary of opening the world’s most infamous detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, at least twelve detainees have gone on a hunger strike, while other detainees protested on the ten year anniversary.
Joint Task Force – Guantanamo Bay’s Director for Public Affairs Commander Tamsen Reese told The Express Tribune that detainees at Camp 6, “informed the guard force that they would be peacefully protesting the 10-year anniversary of JTF GTMO through meal refusals, refusal to come in from recreation areas or displaying protest signs.”
While there are no figures available on the exact numbers, a majority of the 171 detainees present in Guantanamo Bay live in Camp 6. Here, detainees are allowed to meet each other, eat, pray and attend classes together in the facility.
“Approximately eighty-five percent of detainees who are compliant and reside in Camp 6 do not want to lose the privileges of a communal setting (eating, praying, or recreating together),” said Commander Reese. The officer added, “detainees may participate in these non-violent forms of protest and have the opportunity to reasonably express themselves without losing those privileges.”
Debate over the future of Guantanamo Bay continues in the United States as it reaches its ten-year mark. Despite promises made by the US President Barack Obama during his election campaign to close the facility within a year of taking office, the administration, facing opposition from Congress, has been unable to do so.
In December 2011, Congress approved the National Defense Authorization Act 2011, which prohibits the use of funds to transfer detainees to another country.
Guantanamo Forever?
At an event organised by the US think tank New America Foundation on the future of Guantanamo Bay, Congressman Jim Moran dubbed it the United States’ most expensive prison on the planet. Citing figures reported first by US newspaper Miami Herald, Congressman Homan said, “1850 US troops and civilians that maintain a compound that contains 171 captives. You can do the math. That’s over $800,000 per year, per detainee.”
Speaking to Express News, CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen said, “Peter “There’s no money to take people from Guantanamo to face a civil trial in the US Congress has made it very hard for have an alternative…so, Congress has made it almost impossible to close Guantanamo Bay right now. Not because its not a desirable thing, it’s just very hard to close it.”
Quoting figures by the Guantanamo Review Task Force report, experts at the event said that at lest 89 detainees had been cleared for release of transfer. However, these detainees remain in Guantanamo Bay.
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Guantanomo a sign that how much America cares about human rights and justice.