The United States is to allow human rights groups to enter Guantánamo Bay for the first time since detention camps were set up 2 years ago.
The Pentagon has previously barred independent observers from the military base in Cuba, where more than 600 men are detained indefinitely as part of the ”war on terror”.
But under pressure it has agreed that representatives of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and three US bodies will be allowed to watch the first military commissions, which begin preliminary hearing on Monday of the case against four detainees accused of being ”enemy combatants”.
The observers will still not be allowed to visit prisoners at the base, but can watch the controversial trials, at which military officers act as judge and jury, defendants’ conversations with their lawyers are monitored, and the conduct of the defence case is severely restricted.
The British government has said that commissions do not constitute fair trials, and earlier this year a US military lawyer representing one of the detainees said that his client could not receive justice under the system.
Amnesty International said on Thursday: ”We deeply regret that the US administration has continued its preparations for these trials and we will continue to call for an end to them.
”Nevertheless, the only thing that could have been worse would have been for the trials to have gone ahead entirely closed to independent human rights observers.
”In that respect, we welcome the administration’s invitation.”
Wendy Patten, US advocacy director of Human Rights Watch, added: ”This does not change our very serious concerns about the way this system is structured, but it would have been even worse if they had continued to obstruct independent observers.”
The International Red Cross has been the only independent body given access to the camp up to now.
It is allowed to visit detainees as long as it does not discuss conditions there. – Guardian Unlimited