Good start, but keep your promises, Amnesty tells Obama



LONDON - President Barack Obama has made a promising start in improving the United States' human rights record in his first 100 days in office, but he must now deliver on his promises, Amnesty International said Wednesday.
The London-based rights group praised Obama for declaring that he will close the Guantanamo Bay prison, but it said after an "auspicious start" in making a swift announcement, more than 240 detainees are no closer to freedom.



"The bottom line is that... unlawful detentions at Guantanamo Bay continue, and for the vast majority of the detainees, the change in administration has so far meant no change in their situation," Amnesty said.
The report also highlighted Amnesty's concerns about suspects held at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, which it said remained "shrouded in secrecy."
Obama had inherited a "unique opportunity" to dismantle the Bush administration's apparatus for the war on terror which had produced "brutal practices and broken lives," Amnesty said.
"In important ways, President Obama's administration has taken steps to begin to address this legacy," it said.
"The Guantanamo detention facility will be consigned to history, as will, it is to be hoped, the 'enhanced' interrogation techniques and the secret CIA prisons."
But, Amnesty said, "these positive changes do not obscure the fact that over 240 men remain unlawfully detained at Guantanamo, that hundreds of others languish in US custody in Afghanistan with no means to challenge their detention."
It also said "that the USA continues to reserve the right to use rendition and allow the CIA to hold individuals on a short-term and transitory basis."
It concluded that Obama will have failed if he merely moves terror detainees to different sites.
"The closure of Guantanamo must mark the end of the policies and practices it embodies, not merely shift those violations elsewhere, whether to Bagram... or anywhere else," it said.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said it was "too early" to draw conclusions about the administration's treatment of detainees.
"We’ve been very clear, however, that this administration is taking a different approach to dealing with these extremists. And Guantanamo is scheduled to close," he told reporters.
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Wednesday, April 29th 2009
AFP
           


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