UN experts urge Guantanamo closure after suicides

Geneva, June 14 : Five United Nations human rights experts today urged the closure of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay after last week's suicides there that they said were predictable given the harsh conditions.

The experts, who have repeatedly asked for the detention facility in Cuba to be shut, said the simultaneous suicides of three inmates on June 10 heightened concerns about the mental health of detainees, many of whom are still waging a hunger strike to protest their treatment.

In a statement released in Geneva, the group said the three deaths were ''to a certain extent foreseeable in light of the harsh and prolonged conditions of their detention and reinforces the need for the urgent closure of the detention centre.''

Reuters

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