[JURIST] The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) [advocacy website] will visit the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] in the coming days, in an effort to assess the overall mood of the camp in the wake of three detainee suicides [JURIST report] last weekend. Though the unscheduled visit will not be an inquiry into the three suicides, the ICRC hopes to find out what happened from the detaineees' perspectives. The ICRC is the only independent agency authorized to visit detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and does not discuss its concerns from visits with officials running Guantanamo.

In response to the three suicides, the European parliament passed a motion [BBC report] Monday calling for the US to close Guantanamo, echoing previous calls to close the base [JURIST report]. The European Union also plans to discuss a closure with President Bush at a summit in Vienna next week. President Bush has stated that closing the base is possible [JURIST report], pending the forthcoming US Supreme Court decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld [Duke Law case backgrounder; JURIST report], which is expected to determine the legality of military trials for terror suspects held at Guantanamo. The Times has more.