US violates Geneva Conventions at Guantanamo prison

The United States is violating the Geneva Conventions by keeping detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention center even though many of them have been cleared for release, an analyst told Press TV.

“There was circumvention of Geneva Conventions where the United States wouldn’t recognize these ‘prisoners of war’ as what they’re being held under the Geneva Conventions,” co-editor of Dissident Voice Kim Petersen said on Saturday. 

“What they’re actually doing is abrogating the Geneva Conventions and as long as Guantanamo Bay is open the US remains in longstanding contravention of the Geneva Conventions and it’s nothing new,” he added. 

He made the remarks after a US appeals court announced on Friday that the detainees would be allowed to challenge force-feeding procedures against hunger strikers at the detention center. 

“The procedure of force-feeding is just an iota of what should actually be observed in all of this,” Petersen said. 

Newly declassified documents showed that US military officials secretly used a number of harsh tactics against detainees to force them to break their hunger strike. 

Night raids on cells, placing prisoners in solitary confinement, and changing temperatures of the cells were among the brutal tactics. 

More than 100 detainees of the 164 men inside the prison went on a hunger strike in February to protest against their “torturous” conditions and indefinite detention. 

In September, US authorities announced the end of the six-month hunger strike. Lawyers representing the inmates, however, say some of their clients are still refusing to eat. 

(PRESSTV AGB/HJ)