By DPA,
Washington : US President Barack Obama signed an executive order Thursday to close the controversial prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba within a year.
The order sets into motion a review of the cases of all the remaining 245 detainees at the facility and an evaluation of ways to relocate them. That could involve repatriating them to their home nations or to a third country.
Obama also signed an order banning inhumane treatment of detainees and mandating that any interrogations of terrorism suspects in US custody come under the compliance of the US Army’s Field Manual.
Detainees would also be subject to rules outlined in international treaties such as the Geneva Conventions.
Obama’s action marks a swift reversal of former president George W. Bush’s controversial policies in the war on terrorism.