Guantanamo suicides "wake-up call" to EU governments

11.01.23am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 13th Jun 2006

Commenting on the European Parliament vote calling on the US to close Guantanamo Bay, as well as on the shocking statements by some US officials about the suicides there, Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, Liberal Democrat Justice Spokeswoman, said:

"In their despicable description of the deaths as 'a good PR move' and a 'tactic to further the jihadi cause', some officials of the Bush administration leave no stone unturned in their efforts to denigrate America's reputation.

"These suicides are an expression of prisoners' absolute hopelessness in the face of the massive human rights abuses perpetrated in the legal black hole of Guantanamo.

"These tragic developments should be a wake-up call to European leaders to stir out of their negligent collusion and insist at the forthcoming summit with George Bush that the US close this illegal prison and charge or release its detainees held in black sites everywhere."