Guantanamo Bay conditions have improved: Red Cross

GENEVA (Reuters) – Detainees are enjoying better treatment
at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, and the Red Cross is
satisfied with its access to them, the humanitarian agency’s
chief said on Tuesday.

Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said detention conditions at
Guantanamo had “improved considerably” over the past four
years.

“There have also been improvements in the treatment of
prisoners, but that does not mean that there are no longer any
problems at all,” he told the daily Tribune de Geneve in an
interview.

The Pentagon last week released the names and nationalities
of 558 terrorism suspects held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.

Kellenberger said the ICRC, whose work is based on the
principle of confidentiality, has known the identities of those
held there since the beginning of 2002. It had been able to
visit the detainees regularly under satisfactory conditions.

But he said the ICRC and Washington remained at odds over
whether the detainees, which the United States calls “enemy
combatants,” are protected under the 1949 Geneva Convention on
the rights of prisoners of war.

“On this issue, I don’t see a possible agreement at this
stage. But we are not abandoning our efforts,” he said.

He called it “extremely regrettable” that intense media
focus on Guantanamo seemed to distract from troubled sites in
places like Chechnya and Myanmar, where the ICRC has suspended
prison visits over disagreements with local authorities.

ICRC officials visit more than 500,000 detainees worldwide
each year. In 2005, Kellenberger said it sent staff to nearly
2,600 detention centers in 76 countries.