WASHINGTON: The first group of 20 Al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners arrived on Friday at a US military base in Cuba, amid controversy over their treatment and the military tribunals they are expected to face.

Amnesty International expressed concern over reports that the prisoners had been hooded and sedated during the 20-hour flight from Afghanistan.

The US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, defended the use of stringent safety measures.

“There are among these prisoners people who are perfectly willing to kill themselves and kill other people,” he told reporters, adding that the soldiers guarding them on the trip had been told to use “appropriate restraint”.

Before the arrival of prisoners from Afghanistan, guards at the Guantanamo Bay base had been rehearsing with American soldiers acting as Al-Qaida detainees, instructed to struggle as much as possible.

Amnesty also raised questions over conditions at Guantanamo Bay. They would be stay put in a prison of barbed-wire fences and watchtowers known as Camp X-Ray, originally built in the 1990s for Haitian and Cuban boat people. A more permanent camp is being built for 2,000 inmates.

Meanwhile, the prisoners will sleep on mats under halogen lights in makeshift cells.

“Housing detainees in Guantanamo in 6ft-by-8ft, chain-link ‘cages’ at least partially open to the elements would also fall below minimum standards for humane treatment,” Amnesty said.

“Standards for the treatment of detainees require adequate shelter from the elements. The cage size would be less than that considered acceptable under US standards for ordinary prisoners confined to cells.”

Almost all are likely to face military tribunals, the details of which have yet to be decided.

According to draft regulations leaked to the press last month, the tribunals would consist of a panel of military judges, would be open to the press save for evidence involving classified information. They could hand down death penalties by unanimous vote, and guilty verdicts by a two-thirds majority.

The New York-based pressure group Human Rights Watch has called on the Pentagon to use the same regulations as a military court martial, in which proceedings are public and defendants can choose their own lawyer.

It also called on Defence Secretary Rumsfeld to use the tribunals only for people involved in armed conflict against the US. —Dawn/The Guardian News Service.