Chinese Foreign Ministry Calls Guantanamo 'Indelible Blot' On US Human Rights Record

Beijing has urged Washington to take responsibility for the atrocities committed at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, saying the prison has become an "indelible blot" on the situation with human rights in the United States, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Friday

BEIJING (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2022) Beijing has urged Washington to take responsibility for the atrocities committed at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, saying the prison has become an "indelible blot" on the situation with human rights in the United States, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Friday.

"Guantanamo is an indelible blot on human rights in the US," the spokesman said at a press briefing.

Zhao stressed that atrocities committed in US prisons could be regarded as a "dark textbook on human rights violations." He urged the US authorities to take responsibility for the crimes, as well as to apologize to the victims and to compensate them.

"Such US 'black prisons' around the world have long been a classic symbol of the American-style trampling of the rule of law and human rights violations. These prisons also represent a great irony in the context of US politicians' statements about human rights and expose the hypocrisy of the American double standards for human rights," the spokesman noted.

The United Nations has repeatedly expressed serious concern about the way prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay facility are treated. Earlier in January, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe once again called on the US authorities to close the CIA prison as soon as possible.

The Guantanamo Bay detention facility for international terrorists was established after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Representatives of international organizations, including the OSCE, the United Nations and Amnesty International appealed to the new US administration to speed up closure of the Guantanamo Bay camp amid continuing reports on torture of prisoners and human rights violations.

In 2009, then-US President Barack Obama signed an executive order to close the notorious prison, but Congress refused to finance the closure. Obama's successor, Donald Trump, suspended his executive order, though no new inmates were brought to Gitmo. Last July, the administration of US President Joe Biden pledged to close down the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay but has not set a deadline.

ODIHR reported that, as of now, 39 prisoners remain at Guantanamo Bay, with 27 detainees held for 15 to 20 years without formal charges and legal proceeding. Since its inception, at least 780 people have went through the detention camp, nearly all of them were kept arbitrarily, abused or violently interrogated.