LONDON, May 28: Rights group Amnesty International voiced concern in its annual report released Tuesday about the fate of some 1,200 people detained in the United States since Sept 11 suicide attacks.

The group also complained about continued US use of the death penalty.

Amnesty’s report criticized the conditions under which the more than 1,200 people — mostly non-US nationals of Middle Eastern or South Asian origin — have been held.

“AI’s concerns relating to measures following the Sept 11 attacks included reports of incommunicado detention, ill-treatment in custody, government powers to detain foreign nationals indefinitely on the basis of mere suspicion of involvement in ‘terrorism,’ new powers to monitor communications between lawyers and detained clients on national security grounds and the potential use of secret evidence,” the report said.

The group was also critical of President George W. Bush’s decision to try some suspected terrorists before military commissions. The organization also asked for investigations into possible violations of international humanitarian law by US forces in Afghanistan.

AI was also critical generally of treatment of other prisoners within the United States.

A total of 749 people have been executed in the United States since the Supreme Court ruled to permit executions in 1976.

“The USA continued to violate international standards by using the death penalty against the mentally impaired, individuals who were under 18 at the time of the crime, and those who had received inadequate legal representation,” the report said.

AI noted since the beginning of US President George W. Bush’s presidency in January, two federal prisoners have been executed, the first sought by federal authorities since 1963.

The United States also executes adults for crimes committed while they were still minors.

“Prosecutors continued to seek death sentences against defendants who were under 18 at the time of the crime. More than 80 juvenile offenders remained on death row at the end of the year,” the report said.

The USA continued to use life imprisonment without the possibility of parole against defendants who were under 18 at the time of the crime, in violation of international law. AI was also concerned that in the United States, those younger than 17 may receive life in prison.

In the report, Amnesty criticised Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam for ongoing human rights abuses ranging from the execution of prisoners to the suppression of religious freedom.

In its report for 2001, AI condemned Cambodia for turning back more than 100 ethnic minorities who fled from Vietnam as refugees in March.

Thailand came under criticism for using the death penalty, with at least 10 people executed, 72 or more sentenced to death during 2001 and some 300 remaining under sentence of death at the end of the year.

AI reported that more than 120,000 Karen and Karenni refugees continued living in refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border, while “100,000 Shan asylum-seekers who had fled human rights violations in Myanmar continued to be denied access to refugee camps”.

Meanwhile, the report said 2001 saw “renewed repression in Vietnam, with dozens of people sentenced to long prison terms, some of whom were prisoners of conscience, and a crackdown on ethnic minority groups and

religious and political dissidents”.—AFP