How Dare The US Condemn Iraq With POWs Still Denied Rights In Guantanamo
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Monday March 24, 2003 06:14
by How Dare The US Condemn Iraq With POWs Still Denied Rights I
The US is trying to blame Iraq for showing prisoners on TV and yet no newspaper, TV station or web site has yet mentioned that the US is still violating the rights of hundreds of Afghan POWs.
New York, January 11, 2002) -- Human Rights Watch questioned Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld´s statement today that captured fighters from Afghanistan shipped to Cuba were “unlawful combatants” not entitled to protection under the Geneva Conventions. Human Rights Watch also criticized the reported use of chain-link cages to confine the detainees.
“The Secretary seems unaware of the requirements of international humanitarian law,” said Jamie Fellner, director of Human Rights Watch´s U.S. Program. “As a party to the Geneva Conventions, the United States is required to treat every detained combatant humanely, including unlawful combatants. The United States may not pick and choose among them to decide who is entitled to decent treatment.”
News reports indicate that Taliban and al-Qaeda detainees will be confined at Guantanamo Bay in small cages with chain-link sides, concrete floors and metal roofs. The cages will offer scant shelter from wind and rain. Details about sanitary and hygiene facilities are not available.