Restless and desperate - Indefinite detention having negative mental effects on Guantanamo prisoners, say lawyers

 WASHINGTON (AP):

Attorneys for Guantanamo Bay prisoners took their allegations about worsening conditions at the detention centre to an international human-rights body yesterday, warning about the effects of prolonged indefinite detention and harsh conditions.

Three attorneys for prisoners testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington that the lack of any prospect for release, especially for the majority of the 166 prisoners who do not face charges, has created a climate of despair at the United States (US) base in Cuba.

"The situation at Guantanamo today is dire," Ramzi Kassem, an attorney and law professor at the City University of New York, told the commission, which promotes human rights in the Western Hemisphere.

HUNGER STRIKE

Kassem and another of the attorneys, Omar Farah, of the Centre for Constitutional Rights, said that most of the prisoners have been on a hunger strike since February 6 to protest conditions. The US military has said only a handful of men meet the government's definition of hunger strikers.

Kristine Huskey, an attorney with Physicians for Human Rights, told the panel that indefinite detention was likely a factor for the several suicides and hundreds of attempts since the prison opened on the base in January 2002.

"Indefinite detention can cause lasting and severe psychological trauma and physical consequences that rise to the level of torture or cruel and inhuman and degrading treatment," Huskey said.

A State Department official, Michael Williams, countered that the government ensures that prisoners are treated humanely and that the men receive extensive medical treatment.

He also said that President Barack Obama still believes the prison should close and his administration is working within restrictions imposed by Congress to do so.