Vatican Criticizes U.S. for Guantanamo Detainee Treatment

Vatican raps US treatment of Guantanamo detainees

Catholic World News
March 3, 2006

Mar. 03 (CWNews.com) - A Vatican prelate has criticized American treatment of prisoners at Gauntanamo Bay in Cuba. "It seems clear that human dignity is not being fully respected," said Cardinal Renato Martino (bio - news).

Cardinal Martino, the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, spoke to the Italian ANSA news agency after returning from a trip to Cuba, during which he met with Fidel Castro.

For the past 4 years, about 500 prisoners have been detained by American troops at the Guantanamo naval base. These prisoners, most of them captured in Afghanistan or Pakistan, are classified as enemy combatants or suspected terrorists. Their treatment has provoked complaints from human-rights activists. Only a handful have been formally charged with any crime, and the US refuses even to disclose the identities of those being held.