Conditions are worsening for U.S. prisoners in the Guantanamo Bay military camp, according to an Amnesty International report. The report claims that a majority of the 385 inmates are now being held in solitary confinement for up to 22 hours a day, conditions that are “pushing people to the edge.”
Amnesty International called for the immediate closure of the prison camp and the suspension of “unfair” military commission trials.
“While the United States has an obligation to protect its citizens … that does not relieve the United States from its responsibilities to comply with human rights,” the report said.
Navy Commander Henry Gordon said to Al-Jazeera that Guantanamo is reserved for “the most egregious terror suspects.” However, only 10 of the prisoners have been charged with a crime.
Many of the inmates have been held five years or more. None has yet been able to challenge his or her detention in a U.S. civil court, according to BBC News.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined, by a four-to-three margin and two Justices writing separate opinions, to hear the urgent appeal of 45 of the detainees, who sought to challenge the constitutionality of their open-ended confinement without charge.
The detainees had submitted a petition for habeas corpus, which protects individuals from unlawful confinement and arbitrary state power.
Justices John Paul Stevens and Anthony Kennedy wrote a separate opinion “respecting the denial” that required of the inmates “the exhaustion of available remedies as a precondition to accepting jurisdiction over applications for the writ of habeas corpus.”
The ruling upholds a previous decision by a federal appeals court on a provision of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which places those labeled “enemy combatants” outside the jurisdiction of U.S. civil courts.
The act also created the military tribunals used to determine the status of detainees. If determined to be “enemy combatants,” detainees are subsequently subject to a military court to decide a verdict.
“The fact is that the U.S. Constitution grants these rights, presumably, to citizens of the United States,” said Robert Duncan, assistant professor of political science. “(The Bush) administration has thus far managed to rationalize things, like forms of torture and these kangaroo courts, by creating a new category for these inmates – ‘enemy combatants.'”
The first of these tribunals took place last month.
David Hicks of Australia pled guilty to training with al-Qaeda and scouting a U.S. embassy building. After being held for five years and four months at Guantanamo Bay, Hicks was sentenced to nine months in prison.
”Today in this courtroom, we are on the front lines of the global war on terror,” said Lt. Col. Kevin Chenail of the Marines, the lead prosecutor in the case, to The New York Times. “The enemy is sitting at the defense table .We are face to face with the enemy (who was) trying to kill Americans.”
Duncan recognizes the view maintained by those who argue that such measures that are occurring at Guantanamo Bay are necessary.
“It’s common for these types of activities to be permitted by people for the sake of security in so-called ‘war-time’ situations,” Duncan said. “The argument is that citizens come first, and that the inhumane treatment of some who are apparently threats is allowable if it saves others.”
Duncan, however, does not share this opinion.
“I think the Bush administration has done perhaps irrevocable damage to our civil liberties and our status abroad,” Duncan said.
The fear is that it is unclear whether citizens who might be determined “enemy combatants” could conceivably be tried by a military tribunal.
“It’s not impossible for rights to be taken away from citizens, even in a country that claims they are sacred,” said Maria Rosales, assistant professor of political science.
“To maintain human rights requires constant oversight from the citizenry and institutions like Congress,” Rosales continued. “We must simply demand it.”
Meanwhile, detainees continue to suffer ever-harsher conditions, according to the Amnesty report.
“There seems to be a historical cycle,” Rosales said, “between periods of curtailment of rights, followed by a period of expansion of those rights. However, we shouldn’t put all our faith in this cycle. It isn’t guaranteed.