JAKARTA – INDONESIAN human rights activists staged a rally in Jakarta on Wednesday calling for new US President Barack Obama to immediately close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

Around 20 activists wearing faceless white masks and orange jumpsuits similar to Guantanamo inmates’ uniforms were joined by scores of supporters in a march on the US embassy.

Carrying banners reading ‘Stop Torture,’ they demanded Obama close the ‘war on terror’ prison in Cuba in his first 100 days in office.

‘Torturing terrorist suspects is against the values of human rights advocated by America,’ read a statement distributed by the protesters from a coalition of human rights groups.

‘In closing Guantanamo, the US will return to its moral values as a civilised country that respects human dignities.’ But they said closing Guantanamo was only a ‘first step’ for Mr Obama.

‘The closure of Guantanamo must be the first step that Barack Obama needs to do before closing other US secret prison facilities in Afghanistan, the British Indian Ocean territory of Diego Garcia, Jordan, Pakistan, Thailand and in Eastern Europe,’ the statement said.

Mr Obama has promised to shut down the prison as well as former president George W. Bush’s military commissions.

But is could take several months to fully close down the detention camp, as US officials will have to transfer some of the approximately 245 prisoners there to other countries and then decide whether to try the remaining suspects in US courts. — AFP