Guantanamo at 23: What’s next for the ‘lawless’ detention facility?

Washington, DC –&nbsp, The detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, turns 23 on Saturday.

For Mansoor Adayfi, a former inmate at the prison, the anniversary marks 23 years of “injustice, lawlessness, abuse of power, torture and indefinite detention”.

The US military prison, known as Gitmo, has only 15 prisoners left, which is believed to have numbered 800 Muslim men at the time of its closure, which would open a chapter of history for the organization.

However, Adayfi, who currently coordinates the Guantanamo Project for CAGE International, contends that bringing justice to both the Guantanamo Project’s current and former detainees is a prerequisite for its closure.

“The United States must acknowledge its wrongdoing, must issue a formal, official apology to the victims, to the survivors”, Adayfi told Al Jazeera. “There must be reparation, compensation and accountability”.

Guantanamo opened in 2002 to house prisoners from the so-called “war on terror”, a reaction to the attacks on September 11, 2001, in the US.

On suspicion of having ties to al-Qaeda and other organizations, detainees were detained in various nations around the world. Many endured horrific torture at secret detention facilities, known as black sites, before being transferred to Guantanamo.

At Gitmo, detainees had few legal rights. Even those cleared for release through Guantanamo’s alternative justice system, known as military commissions, remained imprisoned for years with no recourse to challenge their detention.

And so, the prison has become synonymous with the US government’s worst abuses in the post-9/11 era.

Prior to his expiration on January 20, the administration of incoming President Joe Biden’s administration has accelerated the release of prisoners from Guantanamo.

On Monday, the US government freed 11 Yemeni detainees and resettled them in Oman. Last month, two inmates were transferred to Tunisia and Kenya.

‘Insane’

Daphne Eviatar, director of the Security with Human Rights (SWHR) programme at Amnesty International USA, said closing down the facility is possible.

The remaining detainees could be moved to other nations or to the US, where they would be tried in the country, she said.

Gitmo prisoners’ transfers to US soil were prohibited in 2015 by Congress. Eviatar thinks the White House can work with lawmakers to lift the cap, especially since there aren’t many prisoners left at the facility.

“It’s a symbol of lawlessness, of Islamophobia”, Eviatar said of Guantanamo.

“It’s a complete violation of human rights. For the United States, which has detained so many people for so long without rights, without charge or trial, it is just horrific. And the fact that it’s ongoing today, 23 years later, is insane”.

Barack Obama made one of his top promises during his 2008 presidential campaign, but the Republican Party opposed him after he took office. Obama regretted failing to shut down the facility early in his presidency toward the end of his second term.

Of the 15 remaining Gitmo inmates, three are eligible for release, according to the Pentagon. Three others can go in front of Guantanamo’s Periodic Review Board, which assesses whether detainees are safe to transfer.

We’re still optimistic that Biden’s administration will release more detainees before he leaves office, Eviatar told Al Jazeera.

While President-elect Donald Trump has previously pledged to keep the prison open, Eviatar said he may view the facility as inefficient.

Plea deals

However, the Quaker social justice advocacy group Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) highlighted Biden’s urgent need to take action before Trump becomes president.

“With President-elect Trump strongly opposed to closing Guantanamo, the need to President Biden to shut the prison down is more urgent than ever”, Devra Baxter, a programme assistant for militarism and human rights at FCNL, said in a statement.

The final three men who have not yet been charged with a crime will be required to turn in their plea deals with those who have, according to the statement.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has instead sought to nix agreements reached with military prosecutors to spare the prisoners from receiving death sentences in exchange for guilty pleas.

Austin’s veto of the agreements is being evaluated by courts as they go along.

Eviatar said Austin’s push to scuttle the plea deals amounts to political interference.

“It’s a very strange situation. I don’t understand why the Biden administration, which says it wanted to close Guantanamo, would then have the secretary of defence come in and stop the plea agreements. It makes no sense”.

Adayfi for CAGE said the scandal surrounding the plea deals demonstrates Guantanamo’s absence from a functioning justice system.

“It’s a big joke”, he said. “There’s no justice in Guantanamo. There’s no law. There is absolutely nothing. One of the biggest human rights violations in the twenty-first century is it.

Adayfi added that the US can have its ideals about freedom, democracy and human rights or Guantanamo, but not both.

Source: Aljazeera