Guantanamo camp raised several human and civil rights concerns

WASHINGTON, February 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Amnesty International calls for an investigation into conditions at the camp where Al-Qaeda suspects are held, as there have been five suicide attempts in the past three weeks by prisoners at the U.S. naval base in Cuba's Guantanamo Bay.

Officials have declined to say whether it was five separate inmates or cases of multiple attempts by one person. Including the 10 attempts in 2002, the new cases bring the total to 15 since the prison was built a year ago to detain men captured during U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, reported British Daily The Guardian.

"Medical and psychiatric teams are working to try to prevent further injury or attempts," A Pentagon spokeswoman, Barbara Burfeind, said. 

According to the paper, Amnesty had protested after the earlier suicide attempts, claiming that the prolonged detention and uncertainty the prisoners faced put them at risk of physical and psychological harm.

Some of the men have been held for more than a year under interrogation by the military, without charge, trial or access to lawyers or their families.

"Clearly, five suicide attempts in a few weeks ought to give grave cause for alarm," an Amnesty spokesman, Alistair Hodgett, said yesterday.

"I think it's incumbent on the department of defense to investigate whether conditions of detention are contributing to these attempts - and make the contents of that investigation public."

The Bush administration has designated them "unlawful combatants", saying they are not entitled to the same rights as prisoners of war, but that they are being treated humanely.

Officials decline to say exactly how many are held and what their nationalities are, though the roughly 625 men are believed to come from more than 40 countries, the Guardian wrote.

The facility has altered its treatment of prisoners in recent months after a new commander took control.

Major General Geoffrey Miller, who took over in November, said in a recent interview that he would offer more rewards for cooperative behavior, such as chances to pray together rather than being held in high-security isolation cells.

U.S. Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that those prisoners who were not a threat, not candidates for trial and of no further intelligence value would be transferred. Five prisoners have gone so far.