On 22 January 2009, US President Barack Obama signed an executive order authorising the closure within a year of the prison camp he once called a "sad chapter in American history".

The move, from a president who pledged to bring respect for human rights back to US foreign policy, raised hopes of an end to one of the most disastrous policies in US counter terrorism measures’.

But that deadline has now passed and about 200 detainees - plus millions of concerned citizens worldwide - continue to wait for justice, with no definite end in sight.

Eight years on, more bad news

The camp at Guantánamo has supplied the world with a steady stream of images and allegations of human rights abuses, including torture. Now new allegations are emerging.

An investigation in January by US magazine Harper’s found that US officials covered up details surrounding the 2006 death of three Guantánamo detainees. Based on accounts from prison guards, the magazine alleges that Saudis Mani Shaman Al-Utaybi and Yasser Talal Al-Zahrani and Salah Ahmed Al-Salami from Yemen probably died during, or soon after, questioning at a black site nicknamed ‘Camp No’ on 9 June of that year. Two of the men had already been cleared for release.

"The MPs inflicted so much pain, Aamer said he thought he was going to die. The MPs pressed on pressure points all over his body: his temples, just under his jaw line, in the hollow beneath his ears. They choked him. They bent his nose repeatedly so hard to the side he thought it would break. They pinched his thighs and feet constantly. They gouged his eyes. They held his eyes open and shined a light in them for minutes on end, generating intense heat. They bent his fingers until he screamed. When he screamed, they cut off his airway and then put a mask on him so he could not cry out."

Zachary Katznelson, a lawyer for Aamer, paints a chilling picture of torture that Aamer claims took place on the very night in 2006 that the three other detainees died.

Rather than acknowledge the real cause of their deaths, officials allegedly fabricated a story that the men had committed suicide by stuffing rags into their own mouths and hanging themselves. The commander at Guantánamo, called the alleged suicides "an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us". An apology was subsequently issued.

President Obama is moving the US in the right direction by committing to end torture, but detainee rights are still being abused in Guantánamo. British resident Shaker Aamer remain locked up despite being never being charged with a crime and being cleared for release. Zachary Katznelson, a lawyer for Aamer, paints a chilling picture of torture that Aamer claims took place on the very night in 2006 that the three other detainees died:

As Obama’s deadline passes questions remain about the future of the detainees. The US administration plans to acquire a prison in the US state of Illinois in which to house them but faces significant opposition from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress. European officials have suggested a more humane plan involving rehabilitation centres, possibly in Yemen or Afghanistan, where detainees could be processed before they are sent home. But the idea has found little support in the US so far. Instead, attempts to send detainees abroad to countries seen as hotspots of terror are increasingly falling victim to hysteria.

In January, the US suspended the return of Yemeni detainees - who make up about half the camp’s inmates - following the failed Christmas Day airline bomb plot, which was allegedly hatched in Yemen. This leaves in the lurch dozens of men who have been cleared following extensive review.

And with remarkably insensitive timing, President Obama’s Guantánamo Task Force chose the day the failed deadline passed to announce that about 50 inmates "should be held indefinitely without trial under the laws of war".

Spooked by the panic over Yemen, the Obama administration is allowing fear to trump respect for the universal values of justice and human rights.

Blocking justice

It has also effectively blocked efforts to expose Bush-era abuses and allow justice for victims. State secrets powers have been used in an attempt to dismiss a lawsuit by five detainees, who say they were subjected to rendition and other human rights abuses as part of the CIA’s extrajudicial prisoner transfer program. The US has also petitioned that a lawsuit against John Yoo be dropped. Yoo, a former senior official in the Justice Department who was instrumental in giving the legal advice that justified detention without trial and torture.

In another case, the government has refused to release photos and other evidence of detainee abuse, and persuaded the US Supreme Court to refuse to hear a lawsuit by four British citizens who claim they were tortured while at Guantánamo Bay.

Beyond Guantánamo

But Guantánamo is only part of the problem. Hundreds of people have found themselves in ‘black hole’ detention centres such as the US air base at Bagram, Afghanistan. This centre has been open longer and held more prisoners than Guantánamo Bay, but there are no plans to shut it down. Recently released Pentagon documents show 645 prisoners were being held there in September last year.

The Obama administration has continued the Bush-era policy of denying Bagram detainees access to lawyers and courts - keeping the site largely beyond the scrutiny of the outside world. It is planning to hand over responsibility for the prison to the Afghan Government. But with regular reports of abuse by Afghan authorities, there is little hope that those detained there will be better treated should this eventuate.

But there is still room for optimism. Though progress in closing Guantanamo and other such prisons is slow, the world is beginning to realise that such prison camps belong in the past. Even as the key one-year deadline for Guantánamo’s closure passes, action by ordinary people remains a potent force in seeing that President Obama and his government deliver justice.

Kenneth Yang is an Indonesia-based journalist specialising in the Asia-Pacific region.

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