GUANTANAMO BAY SHOULD BE CLOSED

Former Chief Prosecutor of the US Government at Guantanamo Bay has spoken out against the abuse suffered the prisoners in the facility called for its shutdown on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the detention centre.

The Former Prosecutor Retired air force colonel Morris Davis who resigned as a protest against the atrocities handed out in the detention centre was speaking in a human rights conference at Bard College in New York State. He said that the methods of interrogation used on Guantánamo detainees-which he described as torture- were violation of human rights and as well as laws laid down in the US Statutes relating to torture.

He described Guantanamo Bay as Black Site, a place where no laws and no conventions of any country apply. Moreover according to him, the impetus to set up such a base was not due to military pressure but to satisfy the whims of the civilian politicians. The military were opposed to this. Davis, an expert on the law of war, and former judge advocate for the US Air Force questioned the concept of War on Terror. He said that the prisoners of war”are supposed to be picked up from the battlefield, but picking up people from streets of Major Cities or from place far away from the battlefield such in Afghanistan or Iraq is not within the concept of War on Terror. If so then the whole world is battlefield.

According to Morris Davis, the prosecution of terror suspects should proceed one step at a time with step one being the closure of Guantanamo Bay and step 2 being the cases being transferred to federal courts.

GUANTANAMO BAY SHOULD BE CLOSED DOWN: SAYS FORMER CHIEF PROSECUTOR OF THE US GOVERNMENT

Legal news report by Adhir Roy Chowdury