GUANTANAMO PRISON A 'TOXIC LEGACY'

The US government's failure to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay naval base is leaving "a toxic legacy for human rights", a charity said today.

Amnesty International condemned the failing on the 10th anniversary of the first detainees arriving at the American detention centre in Cuba.

In a new report, entitled Guantanamo: A Decade of Damage to Human Rights, the charity said the unlawful treatment of Guantanamo detainees underlines reasons why the detention centre continues to represent an attack on human rights.

It called for an end to indefinite detention at Guantanamo and the charity has set up an online petition to President Barack Obama calling for its closure.

Of the 171 men still held at the camp at least 12 were in the original group first transferred to Guantanamo on January 11 2002, Amnesty said.

One of them is serving a life sentence after being convicted by a military commission in 2008 but none of the other 11 has been charged, the charity added.

Londoner Shaker Aamer, 43, is among them and his father-in-law Saeed Siddique said it has torn their family apart.

Mr Aamer, who has been held at Guantanamo since February 2002, is originally from Saudi Arabia but is married to a British citizen and has four British children.

He said: "It is a great injustice for the family. The family has been torn apart for 10 years. Shaker has been detained without being charged for 10 years. What kind of justice is this?"

Supporters have written to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling for a fair trial for Mr Aamer or his immediate release.

Kate Allen, UK director for Amnesty International, said: "It's an absolute disgrace that Shaker Aamer is still behind bars at Guantanamo - without a trial, without access to his family, almost without hope.

"Britain needs to put its foot down with the Americans. We know that the Foreign Secretary William Hague has already called for Shaker's release. He should now insist on a specific timetable for this to happen - within days or weeks, not months or years."

In 10 years, only one of the 779 detainees held at the base has been transferred to the US for prosecution in a federal court. Others have faced unfair trials by military commission and the administration is currently intending to seek the death penalty against six of the detainees at such trials, Amnesty said.

Current Guantanamo detainees include those who were subjected to torture and enforced disappearance prior to being transferred to the camp, the report added


©Press Association 2012

HISTORY OF GUANTANAMO MILITARY JAIL

Tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of the arrival of the first detainees at the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba. Here is a timeline of the history of the military prison.

:: October 2000: A suicide attack on the USS Cole in Yemen blows a 40sq ft hole in the ship's hull, killing 17 sailors and injuring 39.

:: September 11 2001: Al Qaida operatives hijack passenger jets and fly them into the World Trade Centre in New York.

The attacks on New York and the Pentagon, as well as the hijacked plane that crashes into a field in Pennsylvania, claim nearly 3,000 lives - the world's worst act of terrorism.

:: October 7 2001 - British and US forces invade Afghanistan.

:: January 11 2002 - The first prisoners arrive at the Guantanamo Bay naval base from detention centres in Afghanistan. It emerges that there are Britons being held there.

:: January 27 2002 - The family of detainee Shafiq Rasul, from Tipton, in the West Midlands, plead for him to be returned to Britain for questioning. Also held are fellow Britons Asif Iqbal, 22, from Tipton, and Feroz Abbasi, 23, from Croydon, Surrey.

:: October 10 2002 - US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld announces that "a relatively small number" of men will be freed from Camp X-Ray.

:: February 26 2003 - It emerges that 36-year-old Moazzam Begg, from Birmingham, is now a detainee at Guantanamo Bay. The married father of four is reported to have been seized in Pakistan.

:: June 17 2003 - Freed Guantanamo Bay prisoners say they had tried to commit suicide to escape the harsh conditions at the detention centre. Several of the 35 Afghans and Pakistanis released from the US naval base say that while they were physically unharmed they were driven to despair by their confinement in tiny cells and the uncertainty of their fate.

:: July 4 2003 - The US government is accused of "barbarism" as it emerges that two Britons could be among the first detainees to face trial by secretive military tribunals. Mr Begg and Mr Abbasi are on the initial list of six who could face the military commissions.

:: July 18 2003 - The US agrees to suspend the threat of secret military hearings against the nine Britons being held at Guantanamo Bay pending talks between the two nations.

:: November 20 2003 - The immediate fate of the British detainees at Guantanamo Bay will be resolved "soon", prime minister Tony Blair says following Downing Street talks with US president George Bush.

:: November 25 2003 - One of Britain's most senior judges condemns the US for a "monstrous failure of justice" over the holding of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

:: February 19 2004 - The Foreign Office announces that five of the nine British prisoners are to be released. They are named as Ruhal Ahmed, 22, Tarek Dergoul, 26, Jamal al Harith, 37, Asif Iqbal, 22 and Shafiq Rasul, 26.

:: March 9 2004 - home secretary David Blunkett confirms that five British detainees will be released later that day. Four of the Britons - Ruhal Ahmed, Asif Iqbal and Shafiq Rasul, all from Tipton, West Midlands, and Tarek Dergoul, from London - are arrested under section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000 on their arrival in Britain.

Meanwhile, Jamal al Harith, from Manchester, also known as Jamal Udeen and born Ronald Fiddler, is freed.

:: March 10 2004 - Just before midnight, Scotland Yard announces that the remaining detainees have been released without charge.

:: March 12 2004 - Freed detainee Jamal al Harith accuses the US military of punishment beatings and psychological torture. Meanwhile Tarek Dergoul condemns the UK and US governments for "gross breaches of human rights".

:: July 7 2004 - Human rights lawyers launch a case demanding the US government justify its detention of nine foreign terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, including Mr Begg and Mr Abbasi.

:: Around September 19 2004 - Binyam Mohamed is flown to the US military detention centre, where his legal team say he is ill-treated.

He is later charged with conspiracy to plan terror attacks in the US.

:: January 11 2005 - Foreign secretary Jack Straw announces in the Commons that the four Britons still held at Guantanamo will be released following "intensive and complex" discussions with the US.

The four men are: Mr Begg; Mr Abbasi; Martin Mubanga from Wembley, north-west London; and Richard Belmar from St John's Wood, north-west London.

:: January 25 2005 - The detainees, accompanied by Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch officers and medical and RAF police personnel, land at RAF Northolt, west London.

:: February 16 2005 - UN secretary-general Kofi Annan says the US should close Guantanamo Bay as soon as possible, backing a key conclusion of a UN-appointed panel.

:: May 4 2005 - Two British residents detained without trial at the US base in Cuba lose their High Court challenge against the Government's refusal to petition for their release. They later launch an appeal.

:: May 10 2005 - The attorney general Lord Goldsmith QC becomes the most senior Government minister to publicly call on the United States to close Guantanamo Bay.

:: December 7 2007 - It emerges that four British residents being held at the US base in Cuba will be released. A fifth resident will remain at Guantanamo Bay.

:: December 13 2007 - Foreign secretary David Miliband confirms that three of the five remaining UK residents held at the American detention centre will return to Britain.

:: December 19 2007 - British residents Jamil el-Banna, Omar Deghayes and Abdennour Samuer, held without charge or trial at Guantanamo Bay, arrive back in the UK.

:: March 12 2008 - The US military says that it will allow detainees to make regular phone calls to their families from Guantanamo Bay.

:: October 20 2008 - US military prosecutors drop all charges against Binyam Mohamed.

:: January 22 2009 - New US President Barack Obama issues an executive order establishing a review of the cases of all those held at Guantanamo. The White House announces that President Obama had signed an order to suspend the proceedings of the Guantanamo military commission for 120 days and that the detention facility will be shut down within the year.

:: February 23 2009 - An aircraft carrying Binyam Mohamed, 30, lands at RAF Northolt in north-west London. He is detained under border control rules which are part of the Terrorism Act 2000.

:: March 7 2009 - In an interview with the Mail on Sunday newspaper Mr Mohamed reveals harrowing details of his alleged torture and claims that British intelligence was complicit in his abuse.

:: March 23 2009 - The High Court releases details of a document suggesting that attempts were made by the US government to prevent Mr Mohamed taking legal action over allegations that he was tortured.

:: May 20 2009 - The United States Senate passes an amendment to block funds needed for the transfer or release of prisoners held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

:: November 18 2009: President Obama admits he will miss his self-imposed deadline of January 2010 for closing the Guantanamo Bay military prison.

He refuses to give a new date but says he expects it to shut sometime next year.

:: May 19 2011 - An Afghan detainee at the Guantanamo Bay prison dies in an apparent suicide, the US military says.

:: November 16 2011 - It is reported the Government is set to pay out millions of pounds in compensation to former detainees held at Guantanamo Bay.

Among those said to be receiving settlements are Binyam Mohamed, Bishar Al Rawi, Jamil El Banna, Richard Belmar, Omar Deghayes, Moazzam Begg and Martin Mubanga.

:: January 10 2012 - 171 prisoners remain at the detention facility.

©Press Association 2012