Amnesty International urges Biden to uphold promise to close Guantanamo Bay
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Amnesty International urges US President Joe Biden to uphold his campaign promise to close Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
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Amnesty International holding protests to mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Guantanamo Bay
Human rights group Amnesty International urged Saturday US president Joe Biden to keep his campaign promise of closing the Guantanamo Bay detention center, built on Cuban soil, with the 20th anniversary of its opening around the corner.
The camp stands for arbitrariness, injustice, and torture, Amnesty's US expert Sumit Bhattacharyya told German news agency dpa in Washington.
Bhattacharyya called on Biden to close the camp and bring people who were involved in torture or other illegal activities there to justice.
In a press release from Amnesty, Daphne Eviatar, the Director of the Security with Human Rights Program at Amnesty International USA said this was an anniversary that should never have been reached.
"Since the Bush administration, there has been agreement among national security experts and across the political spectrum that the Guantánamo prison - a notorious site of torture and unjustifiable indefinite detention - should be closed," she added.
The camp currently has 39 detainees left, and it was established under former Republican President George W. Bush in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The facility served as a means for the US government to detain suspects without trial, and it is notorious for the torture of prisoners.
Former President Barack Obama, Bush's successor, said he wanted to close the camp; however, Congress opposed.
His successor, Donald Trump, wanted to keep the detention camp open, while current president Joe Biden is pushing for a shut down of the facility.
Amnesty International is planning protests in several German cities and other countries on Saturday to mark the 20th anniversary of the camp's opening in a bid to push the Biden administration into taking action.
