|
U.S. president-elect Barack Obama in an interview with CBS News on Sunday said he will close down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to recover America¡¯s moral status in the world. He said the U.S. has repeatedly said it does not torture prisoners and that this policy will be upheld. His comments took heed of international outrage that U.S. soldiers had in effect tortured prisoners at Guantanamo Bay under cover of unusual interrogation practices.
The U.S. opened the detention camp inside the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in 2002 to imprison terror suspects. At one time, the camp held around 700 prisoners, but now reportedly contains 265 so-called ¡°enemy combatants¡± who were supposedly arrested in Afghanistan and Pakistan and are not treated as prisoners of war.
The camp has stirred up international controversy due to illegal, prolonged detention and violation of human rights. In 2005, the Department of Defense acknowledged some of the violations, including strip searches, sleep deprivation, sexual degradation, and desecrating the Koran. As a result, Guantanamo has become a symbol of the hypocrisy and self-righteousness of the U.S., which had been demanding other countries to adhere to democracy, the rule of law and respect human rights. That is why the UN, Amnesty International, the European Union and other allies of the U.S. had been calling for the closure of the detention camp. Anti-American activists around the world cite the camps each time they criticize the U.S.
During his campaign, Obama has often voiced his desire to close Guantanamo. He sees the closure as a symbolic gesture of America¡¯s willingness to end unilateral diplomacy and move to a new cooperation with the international community.
Since the 9-11 attacks, U.S. foreign and security policies appeared to rely on a simplistic view of good and evil, friend or foe to forcefully reorganize the world. This oppressive style of diplomacy ended up creating more side effects than positive results. Reflecting such views, President Lee Myung-bak said in an interview with CNN on Sunday that if a part of America¡¯s leadership had been damaged, it was because of the focus on ¡°hard power¡± in diplomacy. Lee added if Obama uses ¡°soft power,¡± then he would be able to display more effective and powerful leadership. The closure of the detention camps in Guantanamo Bay could serve as the first symbolic step for the U.S. government toward a new leadership that comes through cooperating with the international community.
|
