Guantanamo call
December 9, 2009
Germany and its neighbors should do more to help shut down the Guantanamo Bay military detention facility in Cuba, says a leading human rights campaigner.
While the US bears the main responsibility for the camp's closure, the rest of the EU has a moral duty, said Monika Lüke, General Secretary of Amnesty Germany.
She said that member states should give homes to released prisoners who would be in danger if they were sent back to their own countries.
In a statement mad on Wednesday ahead of United Nations Human Rights Day, Lüke said, "Germany, as the biggest member of the EU, should make its contribution to finally get rid of this symbol of a war on terror with contempt for human rights."
At the beginning of the month there were 213 prisoners left at the Guantanamo facility, which was set up by former president George W. Bush to hold terror suspects from around the world. Finding willing host countries for those to be freed has been a stumbling block in moves to bring about its closure.
Civilians not protected
Amnesty also criticized the involvement of the German armed forces in Afghanistan. Lüke said the fact that civilians had been killed in the Kunduz airstrike showed that civilians were not being protected as they should be under the Geneva Convention on Human Rights.
She added that members of the armed forces on overseas operations should be subject to Germany's constitution, the Basic Law.
Year of missed chances
Lüke summed up 2009 as a "year of missed opportunities."
She pointed out that US President Barack Obama was set to fail in his promise to close Guantanamo Bay within a year of taking office. The German military in Afghanistan had missed the opportunity to show that human rights and protection of civilians were the best standards by which to judge the war on terror, said Lüke.
In addition, the European Union had missed the chance to establish a consensus on immigration and asylum.
"Every year hundreds of refugees die in their efforts to reach Europe. Because the EU is sealing itself off and even sending refugees back to North Africa, it carries a share of the responsibility," said Lüke.
rc/AP/KNA
Editor. Susan Houlton