Human rights group Amnesty International has called on US president-elect Barack Obama to name a date for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention centre "promptly after taking office" later this month.
Amnesty, marking the 7th anniversary of the first transfers of terrorist suspect to the notorious detention centre at a US naval base in Cuba, said Obama should "make a reality" of his commitment to end the human rights violations.
It also urged the future US president to give his backing to the establishment of an independent commission of inquiry into human rights violations committed during the so-called war on terror waged "by or on behalf of" the US government.
"We are not asking the impossible. Barack Obama has already stated his determination to undo some of the wrongs authorised by the US government in the name of national security and we are asking him to turn this commitment into a reality," Irene Khan, Amnesty International's secretary general, said in the statement released in London.
"The closure of Guantanamo would mark the beginning of a clean break from past detention policies," she said, adding: "The devil will now be in the detail: there must be no re-creation of Guantanamo by any other name in any other place."
{{/usCountry}}"The closure of Guantanamo would mark the beginning of a clean break from past detention policies," she said, adding: "The devil will now be in the detail: there must be no re-creation of Guantanamo by any other name in any other place."
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