CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Vatican Requests US to Respect Guantánamo Prisoners

Rome, March 4, 2006. (Prensa Latina/RHC)-- Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Board of Peace and Justice at the Vatican, accused the United States of not respecting the rights and dignity of the prisoners held at Guantánamo.

In his press conference, the cardinal said every person has the right to a fair trial and to know why they have been arrested which, he said, is not the case for the 500 people held by the US in Guantánamo, the base illegally occupied in Cuba against the will of
the Cuban people.

Martino made the accusations following the Los Angeles Times publication of the testimony of Thomas Wilner, lawyer for six Kuwaitis confined in Guantánamo.

The attorney affirmed that very few people are permitted to visit the prisoners, and that even representatives of the UN and human rights organizations are taken "on tour" but not allowed to converse with the inmates.

Wilner reported it took him two and a half years to even get access to his clients, none of whom were captured in situations of battle; rather they were captured by Afghanis or Pakistanis for such "suspicious activities" as wearing a Casio watch, and sold to the US
military for between 5,000 and 25,000 dollars.

The UN recently asked the US to close the prison at Guantánamo, stop torturing the prisoners, and either liberate or try those held there.

 

 

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