He said the concentration camp was a stain on the character of the United States as a superpower and a democracy.
He also attacked Britain's 28-day detention period for terror suspects, calling it excessive and untenable.
His comments follow a UN report calling for the closure of the concentration camp where some 500 "enemy combatants" have been held without trial for up to four years.
Archbishop Tutu said he was alarmed that arguments used by the South African apartheid regime are now being used to justify anti-terror measures.
"It is disgraceful and one cannot find strong enough words to condemn what Britain and the United States and some of their allies have accepted," he said.
The respected clergyman said the rule of law had been "subverted horrendously" and he described the muted public outcry - particularly in America - as "saddening".
February 17, 2006 20:59 PM
Peace Malaysia urges World Leaders to assert Pressure on US
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 (Bernama) -- Peace Malaysia Friday urged world leaders to support the United Nations (UN) report calling for closure of the United States' Guantanamo Bay concentration camp and a stop to the injustices of the so-called "war on terror".
Peace Malaysia coordinator, Mukhriz Mahathir, said world leaders must not be intimidated by the US and should be bold enough to assert political and economic pressure on the country.
This could be done collectively through the UN or regional and economic forums like the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), he said in a statement here.
Mukhriz, who is also Umno Youth International Relations and Non-Governmental Organisations Bureau chairman, hoped that Malaysia, as the NAM and OIC chair, could play a leading role in increasing international pressure on the US.
"The Bush administration has no regard for international law. Its foreign policy has been to bully or invade and occupy any country that does not tow its line.
"The US must be contained and it is high time world leaders do something about it. They must not allow their governments to be intimidated by Washington hawks," said Mukhriz.
The UN report on Guantanamo Bay released on Thursday also called for detainees to be freed or granted trial immediately.
It also alleged that practices by US military at the facility amounted to torture and inhuman treatment.
In addition, a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) report said that out of the over 500 detainees, 92 per cent had not been Al Qaeda fighters and 40 per cent had no clear connection to the terrorist group.
The US, however, denied these allegations and rejected the reports.
-- BERNAMA
"There is still time for the Administration to do the right thing at Guantanamo. It should release detainees it has no legal authority to hold; it should provide courts-martial or criminal trials to detainees believed to have committed crimes; and it should allow the detainees to speak to outsiders who could tell their stories to the world."
~ Katherine Newell Bierman
Counterterrorism Counsel, U.S. Program
Human Rights Watch
Guant‡namo: A life sentence of suffering and stigmatization
Amnesty International
The US detention centre at Guant‡namo Bay is condemning thousands of people across the world to a life of suffering, torment and stigmatisation.
Hundreds of people remain held in a legal Òblack holeÓ, after four years of indefinite detention. According to testimonies collected by Amnesty International, some families, who know that their relatives are or have been detained by the USA, have received little or no communication from Guant‡namo. Some do not know the whereabouts of their loves ones, or even if they are alive.
The report Guant‡namo: Lives torn apart Ð The impact of indefinite detention on detainees and their families, contains testimonies of a number of former detainees and their relatives and assesses the current state of those still held at Guant‡namo, including nine men who remained imprisoned despite no longer being consider Òenemy combatantsÓ by US authorities.
But the torment does not end in Guant‡namo. For some of the Òwar on terrorÓ detainees, transfer from Guant‡namo has meant a move from one place of unlawful detention to another. For others, it has meant continual harassment, arbitrary arrest and ill-treatment. Even for those who have been returned to their home country, the physical and psychological reminders of their time at Guant‡namo remain, and the stigma of having been labelled an Òenemy combatantÓ or Òthe worst of the worstÓ by the US Government will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Four years since the first Òwar on terrorÓ transfers to Guant‡namo, some five hundred men from around 35 nationalities remain held, most without charge or trial. Some allege they have been subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. In desperation, some detainees have attempted suicide. Others have gone on prolonged hunger strikes, being kept alive only through what they have described as painful forced feeding measures.
A UN report has said aspects of the regime at the concentration camp amounted to torture.
The Northern Ireland secretary said: "I would prefer that it wasn't there and I would prefer it was closed. I've said all along... that it [Guantanamo] is an anomaly and sooner or later it's got to be dealt with."
Meanwhile UK shadow foreign secretary William Hague, in Washington to build bridges with the White House, warned the US its reputation was being damaged by reports of abuse at the concentration camp.
"Reports of prisoner abuse by British and American troops - however isolated - and accounts, accurate or not, of the mistreatment of detainees at Guantanamo and extraordinary rendition flights leading to the torture of suspects, have led to a critical erosion in our moral authority," Mr Hague said in a speech to a Washington think tank on Thursday.
"This has resulted in a loss of goodwill towards America which could be as serious in the long-term as the sharpest of military defeats."
Meanwhile, three British residents ~ Bisher al-Rawi, Jamil el-Banna and Omar Deghayes ~ held at Guantanamo Bay have won permission to seek a High Court order requiring the UK to petition for their release.
A judge said claims of torture at the concentration camp meant the government might have an obligation to act on their behalf.
The judge Mr Justice Collins remarked during the hearing on Thursday that the US' idea of torture "doesn't appear to coincide with that of most civilised countries".
Copyright 2003-2006 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice
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