2006年VOA标准英语-US Reaffirms Desire to Close Guantanamo Ba

By David Gollust
Washington
19 May 2006

The United States Friday reaffirmed its desire to close its detention¹ site for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, once legal questions about the detainees' status are resolved. The comments followed release of a U.N. committee report calling for the closure of the facility.

Officials are reiterating² the Bush administration's wish to eventually close the controversial detention facility.

But in the meantime, they are expressing disappointment over the U.N. report which they say wrongly concludes that indefinite confinement³ at Guantanamo amounts to torture.

The United Nations Committee Against Torture Friday joined a number of governments including some key U.S. allies in calling for the closure of the Cuba facility, set up in 2002 to house terrorist suspects after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Among other things, the U.N. panel said the United State should close Guantanamo and any secret detention sites it may be operating, and refrain from handing the inmates⁴ over to countries where they could face physical and mental abuse.

Responding to the report, both White House and State Department spokesman denied any U.S. abuse or torture of prisoners, at Guantanamo or anywhere else.

They also cited a recent statement by President Bush that he would like to close the Guantanamo site, but that he is awaiting a Supreme⁵ Court ruling on whether inmates can face military tribunals.

The State Department's Sean McCormack said the United States does not want to be the world's jailer. But he said the Guantanamo facility currently houses some very dangerous people and that critics of United States do not want to deal with that fact. "You hear these arguments. You hear these criticisms about U.S. actions at Guantanamo Bay. But you don't hear any solutions, or you don't hear a willingness on the part of others to step up and to take on some of this burden. So, I have to, sorry I have discount some of those arguments when you don't have a willingness on the part of some of those very same people who offer those criticisms to offer solutions," he said.

State Department Legal Adviser⁶ John Bellinger, who led the U.S. delegation⁷ at hearings by the U.N. committee in Geneva earlier this month, told reporters there were factual errors in some of the report conclusions, and that it overlooked remedial steps taken by the United States in response to previous criticism:

"In general, we think they have not acknowledged the substantial changes that have taken place both in our laws, in our procedures, in the conditions at Guantanamo, in training and oversight⁸ that have occurred over a four-year period of time. There has been substantial change in our operations," he said.

Bellinger said that the committee oversteped its mandate⁹ by recommending that Guantanamo be closed. He also said indefinite detention does not constitute torture under international law.

The State Department Adviser said despite disappointment with the report, the United States will continue its cooperation with the panel, and has no intention of pulling out of the 1984 U.N. Convention Against Torture under which it operates.

1 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

2 reiterating   

反复地说，重申( reiterate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He keeps reiterating his innocence. 他一再申明他无罪。
• The Chinese government also sent a note to the British government, reiterating its position. 中国政府同时将此立场照会英国政府。

3 confinement   

n.幽禁，拘留，监禁；分娩；限制，局限

参考例句：

• He spent eleven years in solitary confinement.他度过了11年的单独监禁。
• The date for my wife's confinement was approaching closer and closer.妻子分娩的日子越来越近了。

4 inmates   

n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• One of the inmates has escaped. 被收容的人中有一个逃跑了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The inmates were moved to an undisclosed location. 监狱里的囚犯被转移到一个秘密处所。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

6 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

7 delegation   

n.代表团；派遣

参考例句：

• The statement of our delegation was singularly appropriate to the occasion.我们代表团的声明非常适合时宜。
• We shall inform you of the date of the delegation's arrival.我们将把代表团到达的日期通知你。

8 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

9 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。