“Guantanamo”: Ten Years of Abuse

This week marks the tenth anniversary of the opening of one of the worst prisons in the history of mankind at Guantanamo Bay, which U.S. authorities opened specially to hold detainees from the “War on Terror” launched by the United States as a result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. After the invasion of Iraq, U.S. authorities immediately suspended Iraqi law and did not institute U.S. laws in Iraq, leaving the country and the people to be governed by the laws of the jungle. They did the same thing in Guantanamo, instituting in this remote part of the world neither the rules of war, nor U.S. law, nor the laws of Cuba nor any law in the world. Instead, they created the vague label “enemy combatants” to cover the population of the prison, during what Amnesty International has called a “barbarous era.”

U.S. President Barack Obama pledged to close the prison during his election campaign, adding that it tainted the image of the United States and was inhumane, so that it was a “recruiting tool” for al Qaida. In fact, on Jan. 22, 2009, just two days after he entered the White House, he ordered Guantanamo closed by the end of the year, but ran into strong opposition from the U.S. Congress. The majority of its members, both Democrats and Republicans, took a position against the idea of transferring detainees to U.S. soil for trial in accordance with U.S. law. So, the prison has remained open ten years this week. Some observers think that the world will celebrate the twentieth anniversary in 2022, because the U.S. authorities will not take action to close it.

Although many of the nongovernmental organizations in the United States and Europe and some senior officials are strongly critical of the continued existence of Guantanamo Bay prison camp and are demanding its closure, U.S. authorities have not shown any indication that they plan to listen to these demands. The European Commissioner for Security Affairs, Cecilia Malmström, asked the president via Twitter to carry out his promise to close the prison and said that it was a “shame” that those in this prison are still being held without trial.

All those who participated in terrorist acts should be tried. However, there are laws to govern the punishment and systems to ensure fairness, and this is what is needed here. It is unreasonable to continue the process of detention indefinitely. It is certainly against humanitarian values. Even serial killers and child molesters get a chance to face justice, so there is no doubt that the “enemy combatants,” after ten years of shame and violations behind the bars, deserve to face the justice which is guaranteed for all.