Guantanamo: The USA’s Concentration Camp

14 attempted suicides at Guantanamo says all about the psychological state of the detainees at this concentration camp maintained by the USA in Cuba for political reasons.

The prisoners were taken in Afghanistan, were transported to Guantanamo base, dressed in orange shell-suits and held in conditions of high security under suspicion, but not charges, of belonging either to Al-Qaeda or to the Taliban regime. The psychological problems appear because these people are being treated like sub-humans by a regime which does not even concede to them the right to the status of “prisoner of war”, which would entitle them to protection under a number of conventions, the most famous of these being the Geneva Convention.

Instead, they are considered as “illegal fighters”, a term which has no precedent whatsoever and as such is not covered by any legal structure. These “illegal fighters” are incarcerated in deplorable conditions, many of them for more than a year and without any formal accusation, without access to legal counsel and without the right to have visitors.

Guantanamo is an American concentration camp on Cuban soil, a country which is accused of being totalitarian. What an excellent example the USA sets, what a great difference they illustrate between the regimes of these two countries. One is democratic and practises democracy. The other claims to be democratic yet maintains concentration camps on foreign soil away from the prying eyes of its journalists.

Shame on the Bush administration. Guantanamo brings back memories of Belsen and Dachau, which speaks volumes about the nature of the George W. Bush regime.

Marcia MIRANDA PRAVDA.Ru BRASIL