One more broken promise to close Guantanamo

I was held successful Guantanamo detention centre for 14 years without ever being charged with a crime. I was sent determination erstwhile I was 19. I didn’t cognize wherefore I was being held, what I had done to beryllium imprisoned, oregon erstwhile I would beryllium released.

Like galore of the different men astatine Guantanamo, I believed that the United States forces who held maine would unrecorded up to their ain ideals of instrumentality and justness and assistance maine the close to support myself and beryllium my innocence. That ne'er happened.

Instead, I was subjected to torture and continual harassment. I fought to beryllium treated humanely and to beryllium granted basal quality rights, and aft 14 years was released. Throughout my imprisonment, I imagined that 1 time the satellite would larn what happened to america and would request accountability and justice. I thought erstwhile radical knew, they would adjacent this deplorable place.

It has been astir 9 years since I was released. All this time, I person not stopped penning and giving interviews astir what happened to me. The satellite knows, and yet, Guantanamo is inactive functioning.

Earlier this month, we marked the 23rd day of its creation. Today we people the past time successful bureau of yet different US president who promised to adjacent it and did not. One has to wonderment aft all the reports by the United Nations and assorted quality rights organisations, media reports, documentaries, books, etc – wherefore is this awesome of injustice inactive standing?

Guantanamo was established successful the aftermath of 9/11, a tragic lawsuit that profoundly shook the world. In its wake, the US launched the alleged planetary “war connected terror”, a run ostensibly aimed astatine combating coercion but which, successful reality, legalised torture, undermined planetary law, and dehumanised an full religion community.

Situated connected the land of Cuba, extracurricular US ineligible jurisdiction, Guantanamo detention centre was intentionally designed to circumvent law protections and planetary norms, becoming a spot wherever detainees could beryllium held indefinitely without complaint oregon trial.

The conception of indefinite detention is simply a nonstop affront to the principles of justice. Holding individuals without complaint oregon proceedings defies the precise instauration of ineligible systems worldwide. It denies detainees the accidental to support themselves and subjects them to years — sometimes decades — of suffering with nary solution successful sight.

Guantanamo became a blueprint for different forms of extrajudicial detention, torture, and quality rights abuses worldwide. The prison’s bequest is evident successful the proliferation of CIA achromatic sites, the normalisation of Islamophobia, and the erosion of planetary norms designed to support quality dignity.

The planetary warfare connected panic — with Guantanamo arsenic its astir infamous awesome — institutionalised policies that dehumanised Muslims. It fuelled Islamophobic rhetoric, justified invasive surveillance programmes, and stigmatised full communities arsenic imaginable threats.

The US took the pb connected each this, and galore states followed suit, utilizing US “war connected terror” rhetoric to warrant attacks connected full communities. The consequences person been devastating for Muslim and different susceptible communities.

At its peak, Guantanamo held approximately 680 men and boys, galore of whom had been sold arsenic “terrorists” to US forces successful speech for renumeration. This is what happened to me.

As of today, 15 men stay successful Guantanamo. Some person been cleared for merchandise but proceed to languish successful limbo, a testament to the nonaccomplishment of US systems to uphold adjacent the astir basal quality rights. For these men, each time is simply a continuation of intelligence and carnal torment — a authorities of being neither escaped nor formally accused.

We person heard galore promises that Guantanamo volition beryllium closed for the past 16 years. US President Barack Obama famously signed an enforcement bid connected his 2nd time successful bureau successful 2009 ordering the closure of the facility. Then-Vice President Joe Biden was lasting close adjacent to him, applauding. When Biden became president successful 2021, helium besides made the aforesaid committedness and helium besides broke it.

The situation inactive functions astatine an yearly outgo of astir $540m.

The continued cognition of Guantanamo is not conscionable a nonaccomplishment of argumentation but a motivation stain connected the US. It stands arsenic a glaring contradiction of the ideals of liberty, justice, and quality rights that the US claims to champion. Its beingness undermines US credibility connected the planetary signifier and emboldens authoritarian regimes to warrant their ain abuses.

With each day of Guantanamo’s opening, I hold for the planetary assemblage to aftermath up and request enactment to adjacent the subject prison, supply justness to its victims, and guarantee accountability for those liable for its instauration and perpetuation. Every twelvemonth I americium disappointed.

The Guantanamo subject situation is much than a transgression against its detainees and their families. For implicit 2 decades, it has symbolised systematic torture, arbitrary detention, and the weakening of the planetary quality rights regime. Guantanamo violates the Geneva Conventions and embodies elements of crimes against humanity done its systematic maltreatment of chiefly Muslim detainees.

As a caller medication takes bureau successful Washington, I person the aforesaid connection for them arsenic I had for their predecessors:

Close Guantanamo. Shut down the installation and extremity the signifier of indefinite detention.

Secure justice. Release those cleared for transportation and assistance just trials to the rest.

Ensure accountability. Investigate and clasp accountable those liable for authorising torture, extrajudicial detention, and different abuses.

Acknowledge and apologise. Issue a ceremonial acknowledgment and apology for the injustices committed.

Provide reparations. Compensate erstwhile detainees for the harm inflicted upon them.

Shuttering Guantanamo is not conscionable astir closing a carnal location; it is astir closing a acheronian section of history. It’s astir reaffirming the principles of justice, dignity, and quality rights that should beryllium upheld for each people, careless of their root oregon beliefs. Guantanamo indispensable not spot different anniversary.

The views expressed successful this nonfiction are the author’s ain and bash not needfully bespeak Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.