PARIS, Feb 4: France’s Justice Minister Marylise Lebranchu has told the American authorities that France is “very concerned” about the fate of French Taliban incarcerated at the Guantanamo, and that it would like to have the men repatriated to France so that they can be tried by French courts on French soil.

Mrs Lebranchu, the country’s highest-ranking judicial authority whose official title is Garde des Sceaux (Keeper of the official seal), was reacting to comments made by a US spokesman at the prison facility who noted that the Geneva Convention “was written more than 50 years ago” and that didn’t “necessarily apply” to the situation of the 158 prisoners who presently are detained at Cuba.

The Geneva Conventions were signed in 1864, 1907, 1929 and 1949, and concern the treatment of prisoners of war. The US spokesman, General Michael Lehnert was heard to ridicule the conventions during a meeting with French journalists this weekend, when he noted that if he were to apply the conventions to the letter, he would have to give each prisoner, depending on his rank, between eight and 76 Swiss Francs (roughly 4 to 40 dollars) per month, this according to Article 60 of the conventions, whereas according to Article 25 he would have to provide prisoners with heated cells.

He said that the spanking new copy of the conventions had been sent to him by the International Red Cross.