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LONDON, Jan 14: Human rights groups fearful for the rights of prisoners captured in Afghanistan by US forces have an unusual pitch with which to lobby Western governments: some of the men being held are your own.
Along with hundreds of Arabs and Afghans, the United States has rounded up at least one Briton, two Frenchmen, an American and an Australian in its “war on terror”, with some destined for interrogation at a US naval base in Cuba.
At least one of the Europeans has already arrived in Cuba, with others expected to follow suit in coming days.
Campaigners expressed concern on Monday about the living conditions at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, their status and about the legality of holding men without access to consular staff.
“The United States is flouting international rules of law,” international legal rights campaigner Stephen Jakobi, director of London-based Fair Trials Abroad, said.
Jakobi said he would address the European Parliament in the next few days to encourage European governments to pressure the United States into abiding by international law.
“Britain is a key member of the alliance fighting alongside the United States. I think it is imperative that the entire alliance insures that rules of law are obeyed,” he said.
“Britons and French have been in US custody for some considerable time and their governments haven’t a clue as to who they are. That is a matter of extreme concern because rights monitors are dependent upon someone official having access to them so that we are kept abreast of what is going on.”
BRITAIN “SEEKS ACCESS”: The British government appears eager to avoid criticising the United States over its handling of the prisoners.
This in spite of the fact British officials have not been given access to the one man identified as a Briton among the prisoners taken to Cuba in shackles and taped-over ski goggles.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said the circumstances surrounding the Guantanamo Bay prisoners was complicated given the “nature of the type of people we are dealing with here”.
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said he had no doubt that the United States was abiding by international law.
“There is no doubting the legality of the way in which these combatants have been imprisoned. There is no doubting the legality of the right of the United States or any other country to remove them for trial,” Hoon told parliament.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said Britain had sought access to the prisoner and had asked the United States to verify how many other Britons may be headed to Cuba.
British newspapers report that as many as six more Britons and two Frenchmen are among the next destined for Guantanamo.
“It is quite a complicated issue and we have sought access to the man. The Americans have assured us he is being treated humanely,” the Foreign Office spokeswoman told Reuters.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Friday the prisoners would be held as “unlawful combatants” and not as prisoners of war (POWs), opting for a status that would give them less rights than under Geneva protocols.
“The US government is deciding that they are not prisoners of war after making an administrative decision and are not complying with international law,” said Jakobi of Fair Trials Abroad.
“ADVENTURE GONE WRONG”: Amnesty International spokesman Claudio Cordone noted that the Red Cross, custodian of the 1949 Geneva Convention that governs how combatants are treated, said the men should be considered POWs until proven otherwise.
“According to the Geneva Convention, only a competent tribunal can determine whether they are POWs or not. No government has that right,” Cardone told Reuters.
British officials think dozens of young British Muslims, mostly sons of immigrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh, travelled to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban.
One East London family who had not heard from their only son since he left to fight last September said they feared the worst for their son.
“Abdul (not his real name) is either dead or prisoner and may die anyway. We would have heard from him by now,” said Abdul’s elderly Pakistani father.
Though Abdul, a 25-year-old computer technician, was born in London, he and some other sons of south Asian immigrant families in Britain felt trapped between two cultures, his father said.
“He is not a traitor to Britain because he wanted to do something to help his (Muslim) brothers. It is like an adventure gone wrong.”—Reuters
