Cuba: Three detainees at Guantanamo Bay hanged themselves using nooses made from sheets and clothes, in what are the first reported deaths at the prison in over four years.
Military officials said the suicides were coordinated acts of protests at the base, where hundreds have been held without charge for years.
Guantanamo Bay, at a glance:
What is at Guantanamo Bay?
- The area is a major naval base for the US, housing 3,000 military service members, civilians and their families.
- The prisoners are being held in a hastily-constructed high security prison called Camp Delta. The area was formerly known as Camp X-Ray, originally constructed to hold Haitian refugees in the 1990s.
Why does the US have a naval base on Cuba?
- The base dates back to a treaty, signed in 1903 and renewed in 1934, which leases the Guantanamo Bay site to the US for $4,085 per year.
- The treaty requires the consent of both governments to revoke or change it and, unsurprisingly, the US will not agree to that. In protest, Cuba has refused to accept the rent payments.
What is Camp Delta like for the prisoners?
- Prisoners are held in four camps, in small, mesh-sided cells, for up to 24 hours a day. Cellblocks are made up of 48 cells. There is little privacy, and lights are kept on day and night.
- Inmates are allowed half an hour of exercise between three and seven days each week in a caged recreation yard measuring 7.6 metres by 9.1 metres.
- The ICRC visits prisoners, and facilitates the exchange of letters between inmates and their families. US officials look over the contents of all correspondence with families, who are not allowed to visit.
- Journalists have not been allowed access to the prisoners. In June, Camp Delta officials ended a BBC tour of the camp after one inmate attempted to speak to journalists.
Have the men been charged with a crime?
- No. They can be detained for as long as the US government sees fit, without charge or trial.
What is the legal status of the prisoners?
- As the US has refused to comply with international law, the men have been denied their legal rights under the Geneva Convention. The US has insisted that the men are not prisoners of war. It says that they have been treated humanely, in line with the Geneva Convention.
- As long as the prisoners never touch US soil - and US courts do not consider the Cuban base to be part of the US - they are also denied the rights guaranteed to criminals under the US constitution, such as a presumption of innocence and a trial by jury.
- Prisoners are to be tried by military tribunal, with even defence lawyers appointed by Washington. Sentences could include the death penalty.
- US officials have subjected the prisoners to interrogation, as only prisoners of war protected by the Geneva Convention are entitled to give no more information than name, rank and serial number.
