Cuba has introduced a resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission calling for an independent investigation into the US detention centre at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque made the announcement hours after the Geneva-based rights forum voted for a US resolution calling for the extension of the mandate of a UN expert examining the human rights situation in Cuba.
The Cuban resolution "asks that the US Government authorise an impartial and independent investigation by the appropriate Human Rights Commission mechanisms into the situation of people deprived of freedom at its naval base in Guantanamo". Some 540 detainees, most captured in Afghanistan or Pakistan following the September 11, 2001 attacks, are currently held as "enemy combatants" at the Guantanamo prison at the US naval base in in eastern Cuba.
The detainees include Australian David Hicks.
The Cuban resolution also calls for the United States to allow UN special envoys on torture and arbitrary detention to visit detention facilities at the naval base.Perez Roque called on the European Union, which co-sponsored Washington's resolution at the 53-member commission, to back Cuba's resolution so the EU can show "its real concern over the human rights situation in Cuba".
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200504/s1345838.htm