'Guantanamo detainees risk irreparable mind damage'

"The conditions of detention, especially of those in solitary confinement, place the detainees at significant risk of psychiatric deterioration, possibly including the development of irreversible psychiatric symptoms," said a joint statement by UN investigators into the detention centre where the United States is currently holding some 550 international terror suspects from more than 20 countries.

Noting that there was no longer any international conflict in Afghanistan or Iraq, the statement quoted the Third Geneva Convention which states that prisoners of war must be released without delay when hostilities end.