The video “20 years of Guantanamo detention camp” was published in Jan 2022 by DW in English language, is about 8 minutes long.
The brief of the story is as follows:
20 years ago today, the first prisoner arrived in Guantanamo bay. The detention camp there was set up by the US following the 911 attacks and the soon invasion of Afghanistan, and a clear breach of human rights. Most prisoners were held indefinitely without trials. DW’s Oliver Sallet went to the US naval base at Guantanamo bay, and the camp that some say has come to symbolize the biggest US moral failings in the war on terror.
Guantanamo locates in a tropical paradise, but the US naval base in Cuba stands for human rights abuses and tortures.
Muhammadu01Slahi has been held here for 14 years, suspected of involvement in the 911 attacks, but never charged for a crime. In custody, he was brutally tortured by the US soldiers. And he suffers for post traumatic stress disorder syndrome until today.
Muhammadu was built after 911 attacks, the US government aimed for a forceful and rapid response.
In the war on terror, America and its allies invaded Afghanistan. The US naval base at Guantanamo bay serves as a prison for alleged war criminals and terror suspects, a place where US constitution does not exist.
Ever since its open, human rights activists argue, Guantanamo is where the US lost its moral authority. A place of torture and duble standards, most off limits for camera.
But there is also another side of the Guantanamo, a place of 6 thousand inhabitants try to go about their everyday lives, and a bizzard contrast to the infamous prison.
Out of almost 8 hundred former detainees, 39 are still in incarcerating in Guantanamo, only 2 have been convicted of a crime.
Also in the video, Cliff Sloan, the former special envoy for Guantanamo closure under President Obama, argues there is no reason the US can not move forward with closing Guantanamo detent
