More than 400 intellectuals from all over the world on Tuesday denounced the hypocrisy of the United States and its European Union (EU) allies on the issue of human rights, calling on Washington to close its illegal prisons.

On behalf of the celebrities, Roberto Fernandez Retamar, head of Cuban cultural group Home of the Americas, made the statement at a press conference here.

"The United States and its EU allies have successively prevented the UN Commission on Human Rights from condemning the massive and systematic violations of human rights promoted in the name of the so-called war against terrorism, " the statement said.

It also accused the EU governments of refusing to admit the "testimonies and evidences submitted by citizens of their countries, who have been victims of several forms of torture at the Guantanamo navy base."

"They have also allowed the flight of CIA (the Central Intelligence Agency) aircraft carrying prisoners to illegal detention centers in Europe and elsewhere," it said.

The statement called on the Commission on Human Rights or the Council, which will replace it, to demand the immediate closure of the U.S. detention centers and "ceasing of all violations of human dignity."

The statement was issued one day after the 62nd session of the UN Commission on Human Rights opened in Geneva, which coincided with the broadcasting of news footage of U.S. military torturing Iraqi prisoners.

The statement was signed by more than 400 intellectuals from Argentina, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Cuba, France, Italy, Mexico, Spain, the United States and other countries, including eight Nobel Prize laureates.

Fernandez said the statement was not a document to be presented to the UN Commission on Human Rights, but a moral judgement made the intellectuals to gain political effectiveness.

The statement would be published in major newspapers of Europe and the United States on Wednesday, Fernandez added.

About 500 detainees are being held in the Guantanamo prison, east Cuba. Most of them were captured in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan in 2001.

Organizations across the world have condemned Washington's move of indefinite detention without charge. The United States argues, however, it has the right to hold people it describes as enemy combatants because it is effectively at war with al-Qaida.

The United Nations urged Washington last month to release all detainees in Guantanamo prison, or bring them to trial and shut down the facility.

Source: Xinhua