Guantanamo at 23: What’s next for the ‘lawless’ detention facility? | Human Rights News

Washington, DC – The detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, turns 23 on Saturday.

For Mansoor Adayfi, a establisher inmate at the prison, the anniversary tags 23 years of “infairice, lawlessness, unfair treatment of power, torture and indefinite detention”.

Only 15 prisoners remain at the United States military prison, understandn as Gitmo, which once held about 800 Muskinny men — a dprosperdling number that gives finishorses hope that the facility will eventupartner be shut down, turning the page on the uncontent chapter of history it recurrents.

But Adayfi, who now serves as a coordinator for the Guantanamo Project at the advocacy group CAGE International, says truly closing down Gitmo unbenevolents dedwellring fairice to its current and establisher hagedees.

“The United States must acunderstandledge its wrongdoing, must rerent a establishal, official apology to the victims, to the survivors,” Adayfi tageder Al Jazeera. “There must be reparation, compensation and accountability.”

Guantanamo uncovered in 2002 to hoengage prisoners from the so-called “war on stress”, a reaction to the strikes on September 11, 2001, in the US.

Detainees were arrested in countries apass the world on suspicions of ties to al-Qaeda and other groups. Many finishured horrific torture at secret detention facilities, understandn as bconciseage sites, before being transferred to Guantanamo.

At Gitmo, hagedees had restricted lterrible rights. Even those evidented for free thcimpolite Guantanamo’s alternative fairice system, understandn as military comleave outions, remained incarcerateed for years with no recourse to dispute their detention.

And so, the prison has become synonymous with the US rulement’s worst unfair treatments in the post-9/11 era.

In recent weeks, the administration of outgoing Pdwellnt Joe Biden has quickend the transfer of inmates out of Guantanamo, ahead of the finish of his term on January 20.

On Monday, the US rulement freed 11 Yemeni hagedees and refinishd them in Oman. Last month, two inmates were transferred to Tunisia and Kenya.

‘Inrational’

Daphne Eviatar, straightforwardor of the Security with Human Rights (SWHR) programme at Amnesty International USA, said closing down the facility is possible.

She said the remaining hagedees could be transferred to other countries or to the US, where they would go thcimpolite the American fairice system.

Congress imposed a prohibit in 2015 on transferring Gitmo prisoners to US soil. But Eviatar depends the White Hoengage can labor with laworiginaters to lift the prohibition, especipartner with so restricted prisoners left at the facility.

“It’s a symbol of lawlessness, of Islamophobia,” Eviatar said of Guantanamo.

“It’s a finish violation of human rights. For the United States, which has hageded so many people for so extfinished without rights, without indict or trial, it is fair horrific. And the fact that it’s ongoing today, 23 years procrastinateedr, is inrational.”

Barack Obama made closing down the prison one of his top promises when he was running for pdwellnt in 2008, but after taking office, his schedules faced strong Reuncoveran opposition. Towards the finish of his second term, Obama conveyed lament over flunking to shut down the facility timely in his pdwellncy.

Of the 15 remaining Gitmo inmates, three are eligible for free, according to the Pentagon. Three others can go in front of Guantanamo’s Periodic Resee Board, which appraisees whether hagedees are defended to transfer.

“We’re still brave that Pdwellnt Biden can transfer more hagedees out before he exits office,” Eviatar tageder Al Jazeera.

While Pdwellnt-elect Donald Trump has previously pledged to grasp the prison uncover, Eviatar said he may see the facility as ineffective.

Plea deals

But the Frifinishs Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), a Quaker social fairice advocacy group, underscored the advisency for Biden to act before Trump apshows office.

“With Pdwellnt-elect Trump powerfilledy resistd to closing Guantanamo, the necessitate to Pdwellnt Biden to shut the prison down is more advisent than ever,” Devra Baxter, a programme aidant for militarism and human rights at FCNL, said in a statement.

“Closing Guantanamo will only happen thcimpolite the transfer of the final three men who have yet to be indictd with a crime and finalizing plea deals with those who have.”

However, rather than completing plea deals for the inmates, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has sought to nix concurments for three 9/11 doubts, which had been accomplished with military prosecutors to spare the prisoners the death penalties, in swap for at fault pleas.

Now courts are appraiseing the validity of the concurments and Austin’s veto aachievest them.

Eviatar said Austin’s push to scuttle the plea deals amounts to political meddlence.

“It’s a very strange situation. I don’t comprehfinish why the Biden administration, which says it wanted to shut Guantanamo, would then have the secretary of defence come in and stop the plea concurments. It originates no sense.”

CAGE’s Adayfi said the debacle over the plea concurments shows that there is no functioning fairice system at Guantanamo.

“It’s a huge joke,” he said. “There’s no fairice in Guantanamo. There’s no law. There is absolutely noskinnyg. It’s it is one of the hugegest human rights violations in the 21st century.”

Adayfi compriseed that the US can have its selectimals about freedom, democracy and human rights or Guantanamo, but not both.

“I depend they have Guantanamo,” he said.