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U.S. detainees policy criticized
By CNN's Avril Stephens
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Human rights groups criticized the U.S.' planned release of 12 more detainees from Guantanamo Bay saying all "unlawful combatants" should be charged or freed. U.S. defense officials say the detainees, including children, will be released from the high-level security U.S. military base in Cuba after a delay caused by the Iraq war. No date, or further details on who or exactly how many will be released have been given. But human rights groups say the remaining 650 detainees should be brought to court or freed, having been arbitrarily held without access to a lawyer or a trial since many were held there more than a year ago. "Allowing prisoners to challenge the lawfulness of their detention in a court of law is a fundamental human right that protects against arbitrary arrest and detention," Amnesty International, U.S., said in a statement Tuesday: "All of the prisoners held at Guantanamo should be charged or released." They also say basic human rights violations are taking place, with the detainees being kept in prolonged solitary confinement, heavy shackling and lack of adequate exercise. Fifteen detainees have unsuccessfully attempted to commit suicide. Human rights groups say the detainees will only be released or tried when politicians put enough pressure on the U.S. government to take action. The latest release comes after the U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell complained to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about the time it was taking to come to a decision on the fate of the detainees. Eight countries have complained about its citizens being detained, among them Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Britain and Pakistan. Most of the detainees are from Afghanistan and Pakistan, but there are some from more than 40 other countries. Those released are expected to receive clothes and some money, and then handed to Afghanistan authorities after which their fate will be decided. The detainees are being held as "unlawful combatants" rather than prisoners of war (PoWs) and as a result are not officially covered by the Geneva Convention. Some were captured with concealed weapons, while the "unlawful combatant" tag allows the U.S. to indefinitely interrogate the detainees for intelligence on Afghanistan's former Taliban authorities and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service denies basic human rights are being withheld from detainees. Rumsfeld: Complicated processBut Stephen Jakobi, director of the UK-based legal rights charity Fair Trials Abroad, told CNN: "I am an international human rights lawyer, and I had not heard of the term unlawful combatants before the U.S. used it after the Afghanistan war. "The sad, and irresistible conclusion, is that the U.S. will lock everybody up who does not hold the same views as itself." He added: "The U.S.' pleas about useful intelligence gets thinner and thinner as time goes on. The information will be of more use to historians than intelligence operatives. "The question remains, 'Why are they being held there -- to which there is no rational answer.'" Rumsfeld said Sunday that the process for releasing prisoners is complicated and slow, The Associated Press reported. "They must be questioned by several government agencies, including the FBI, the Justice Department, the State Department, the Pentagon, the CIA and U.S. immigration services," he was quoted as saying. Detainees may be returned when they are determined to be innocent civilians caught on the battlefield, they no longer pose an intelligence value, or they are no longer deemed a threat. So far, 23 detainees have been released since the camp was opened in January 2002. They have all been elderly or mentally-impaired. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, although some of the detainees being held may be regarded as children they are "very, very dangerous people ... who have killed." The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington rejected in March an appeal brought by 16 detainees, from Australia, Britain and Kuwait, to be allowed a hearing. Nine Britons are being held at Guantanamo Bay. A spokeswoman for the British Foreign Office told CNN: "We remain in close contact with the U.S. and continue to press about the Britons' fate. "British officials have made five trips to the camp and asked the detainees about their welfare. They have found the conditions, in general, to be satisfactory. "The U.S. has given us their assurance that the detainees are being treated humanely." Question marks also hang over the fate of Iraqis captured by coalition forces in the latest Gulf war. Thousands of soldiers, as well as high profile Iraqi officials listed in the U.S. pack of cards, are in detention, their fate unknown. Those held by British forces in southern Iraq are being treated as PoWs "unless proven otherwise," the Foreign Office spokeswoman said. Three days ago, the Pentagon announced that rules had been issued for possible trials of foreign terrorism suspects. U.S. officials did not say which prisoners or how many might be brought to trial before military commissions or when such trials might start. They said it was possible such trials could be held at the Guantanamo base.
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