Australian Democrats "stop acting like a cheer squad for Guantanamo"

THE Australian Democrats said the federal Government should stop acting like a "cheer squad" for Guantanamo Bay and the US military commission process and seek to shut them down. Australian David Hicks has spent four-and-a-half years in detention at the US facility in Cuba awaiting a military commission trial after being captured during the war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Three other foreign prisoners – two from Saudi Arabia and one from Yemen – awaiting their fates at the prison camp hanged themselves last week. The deaths have sparked criticism of the camp and the military commission process from the UN, human rights groups and a key ally of the US in the Iraq war, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Democrats justice spokeswoman Senator Natasha Stott Despoja said Prime Minister John Howard should seek justice in the matter.

"We've had the Danish Prime Minister, the British attorney-general and the UN call for its closure," Senator Stott Despoja said. "Australia, in contrast, looks like a cheer squad for the military commission process." The Democrats tomorrow will move a motion in Parliament calling on the Government to reconsider its position and call for Guantanamo's closure. Senator Stott Despoja said the party also was concerned that the Hicks family was not given enough information about David's state of health.

"I, like many other Australians, fear greatly for his safety and mental and physical well-being," she said. "His most recent detention is particularly disturbing given the recent suicides." Senator Stott Despoja said she was aware of a number of Government senators who had concerns about Guantanamo. "Guantanamo Bay is a hell hole and it's an abuse of human rights," she said. A rally in support of David Hicks will be held outside South Australia's parliament house on Friday.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19444106-1702,00.html