Amnesty seeks access to Cuba detainees
Amnesty International has requested access to the al-Qaida and Taliban detainees being held by the US army on a military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The human rights group said it is alarmed at the secrecy surrounding the men’s detention and their treatment at the hands of the US authorities.
Speaking in London, Amnesty said it suspects the US is using sensory deprivation techniques to soften the men up prior to interrogation.
The US has refused to grant the detainees prisoner of war status, preferring to describe them as "unlawful combatants", a term which has no basis in international law.
Referring to photographs of the prisoners wearing shackles and deprived of sight, hearing, touch and smell, Claudio Cordone, Amnesty’s director of research, said: "The imposition of sensory deprivation bears all the hallmarks of known methods to break prisoners prior to interrogation.
"While there are legitimate security considerations with regard to the dangers they may pose, we feel the measures adopted in their regard, to the extent that they are known, go well beyond what is necessary from a security point of view."
The US has already transferred approximately 160 people arrested in Afghanistan to its military base in Guantanamo Bay.
