Amnesty official says US running "archipelago" of prisoners around the world

Amnesty official says US running ' archipelago' of prisoners around the world

By Kuna

WASHINGTON, June 5 (KUNA) -- A top Amnesty official said on Sunday he was not sure about whether to approve the credibility of part of the recently made annual report of Amnesty that the US military is running a 'gulag' in Guantanamo, but charged that the United States is running an 'archipelago' of prisoners around the world.

Head of the Amnesty International-USA, William Schulz, made the remarks to FOX news television in an interview a week after Amnesty harshly criticized the US treatment of prisoners in Gauantanmo saying that Guantanamo has 'become the gulag of our times', a charge that drew growing anger among top US Administration officials as untrue and 'obsured'.

When asked whether he approved the finding of the Amnesty report on treatment of prisoners in Guntanamo, Cuba, Schulz said 'It would be fascinating to find out. I have no idea'.

'We don't know for sure what all is happening at Guantanamo and our whole point is that the United States ought to allow independent human rights organizations to investigate,' he said.

The United States has come under increasing criticism over report of mistreatment of prisoners in Guantanamo, the latest of Which the desecration of the holy book of Quran.

But Schulz said despite the fact that the report would need further verification, the United States maintained an archipelago of prisoners around the world.

'The United States is maintaining an archipelago of prisons around the world, many of them secret prisons into which people are being literally disappeared and in some cases, at least, we know that they are being mistreated, abused, tortured and even killed,' he said.

Schulz also charged that the United States is holding the prisoners in 'indefinite incommunicado detention without access to lawyers'. (end) sa."