Greens call for Guantanamo to close (Australia)

THE Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba should be closed immediately following the suicides of three inmates, the Australian Greens have said. The US military has confirmed that three foreign prisoners – two Saudi Arabians and one Yemeni – being held at the US navy base hanged themselves with clothing and bedsheets.

Navy Rear Admiral Harry Harris, commander of Guantanamo, told a news conference the suicides were an act of warfare, not of desperation. Almost 500 foreigners, including Australian David Hicks, are being held at Guantanamo Bay after being captured mainly in the US war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Greens senator Bob Brown said Guantanamo Bay was a mediaeval torture chamber which had to be closed. He will move a motion in the Senate on Tuesday calling for it to be shut down and Hicks brought home. "Guantanamo Bay is an illegal torture centre which has no place in civilised society," Senator Brown said. "It's a throwback to the Middle Ages and it's not Christian. "And the description of the suicides as an act of war by the commander itself warrants psychiatric study."

The Greens have unsuccessfully moved several times in the past for the Guantanamo Bay detention facility to be closed. But Senator Brown said he believed there was a growing unease among government members about Guantanamo Bay and Hicks' continuing detention. "I think members of government will be surely troubled by events in Guantanamo Bay and the fact that David Hicks is being kept there as a caucasian showpiece in amongst the 450 prisoners who remain there," he said. "I think there will be growing unease in government ranks."


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19435976-1702,00.html

Every time Senator Brown pushes for the closure of Guantanamo Bay John Howard squirms just that little bit more. Howard and his government have done nothing to have David Hicks released because of the fear of upsetting Bush. Keep pushing Bob