European Parliament wants Guantanamo Bay closed

An overwhelming majority of MEPs yesterday voted in favour of a resolution calling on the US government to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay with immediate effect.

All five Maltese MEPs voted with the majority at the plenary session of the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, in adopting a joint resolution on the prisoners at Guantanamo. The MEPs also insisted that every prisoner should be treated in accordance with international humanitarian law and, if charged, tried without delay in a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial court of law or international tribunal.

The European Parliament resolution continues to add international pressure on the US to solve this embarrassing issue.

The European Parliament noted that the recent suicide of three detainees at Guantanamo Bay raised more international concern about this detention facility where about 500 terror suspects are held by the US without being charged or tried.

MEPs called on the US government to grant unimpeded access to the detainees at Guantanamo Bay to the respective UN bodies and international human rights organisations and noted that the Red Cross was the only international organisation to have official access to the detainees.

The call from the European Parliament follows another appeal for the closure of the facility by a top EU official earlier on this week. Austria's Foreign Minister and the current president of the EU Council, Ursula Plassnik, on Monday urged the US government to take immediate action. "Our position is that Guantanamo should be closed as quickly as possible.

For a country like the US committed to freedom and the rule of law, this is an anomaly," she said.