WASHINGTON: Authorities at the US Naval Base on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have discovered that several of their detainees are juveniles and have begun providing them special care while trying to sort out what intelligence value, if any, the youths might have.

The “handful” of juveniles, described as between the ages of 13 and 15, were flown to the detention camp earlier this year and, after a detailed medical examination, were determined to be youngsters who were declared “enemy combatants” when they were arrested fighting against US troops in Central Asia, Army Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said Tuesday.

Because of their special situation, Johnson added, the juveniles have been removed from individual cells at Camp Delta and placed in a group setting away from the other 660 detainees. They also are being given extra mental health counselling, and efforts are under way to contact their home nations and, presumably, reach their parents.

But, Johnson stressed, there is no intention at this point of simply returning them home before US interrogators can thoroughly examine them. US officials want to first determine that they would no longer be a threat to the United States if they were released.

In addition, there has been no decision that, just because they are juveniles, they automatically would not be sent to a military tribunal and, possibly, sentenced to more prison time.

The acknowledgment that some of the detainees — numbered at fewer than a half-dozen — are juveniles comes after the camp has been operating for more than a year as the central holding facility for prisoners from the Afghan war. The prisoners’ fates have yet to be determined.

As the detention camp continues to grow, tensions and deep frustrations have settled in at the facility. There have been sporadic hunger strikes, and two dozen detainees have attempted suicide, mostly by trying to hang or strangle themselves.

Authorities soon will decide what to do with one man who severely injured himself in an attempted hanging and was reported to have been in a coma.

“He is back in the detention hospital,” Johnson said of the detainee, who hurt himself Jan. 16. “He is undergoing evaluation to determine what disposition should be taken with him, and what his prognosis is for the future.

Further complicating the uncertainty at the base, the US Court of Appeals in Washington ruled last month that none of the detainees have the right to meet with lawyers or seek due process in the courts.—Dawn/LAT-WP News Service (c) Los Angeles Times