Guantánamo Bay: The U.S. Administration Needs to Act on the Red Cross Report

Commenting on reporting in yesterday's New York Times on the International Committee of the Red Cross's (ICRC) prisoner abuse findings at the Guantánamo Bay detention center, Cem Özdemir, MEP and Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee issued the following statement:

The report confirms the longstanding assumption that torture and wrongful handling of prisoners is occurring at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It blames the government in Washington for trying to win the "War on Terror" by all possible means. In Guantanamo, all legal and international standards are being trampled upon. The fight for democracy and human rights cannot be won through methods of torture, nor can the battle for the "hearts and minds" of the Arab world. The report has been known to government authorities for the past five months. Action is long overdue. Unlawful and inhumane conditions must be immediately addressed. Treatment of prisoners must respect international standards -- they must finally be granted status as "prisoners of war" and receive access to U.S. civil courts.

Source: www.greens-efa.org/cms/pressreleases/dok/101/101196.guantnamo_bay@en.htm