USA: one year on -

USA: one year on - the legal limbo of the Guantánamo detainees continues


10 January 2003 --The US government must end the legal black hole into
which it has thrown
hundreds of detainees in Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, Amnesty International said
today, the first anniversary of the first prisoner transfers from
Afghanistan to the US Naval Base. There are currently more than 600
detainees of around 40 nationalities held in Guantánamo.

"This legal limbo is a continuing violation of human rights standards
which the international community must not ignore", Amnesty International
said.

"No access to the courts, lawyers or relatives; the prospect of
indefinite detention in small cells for up to 24 hours a day; the
possibility of trials by executive military commissions with the power to
hand down death sentences and no right of appeal: is this how the USA
defends human rights and the rule of law?", Amnesty International asked,
recalling the Secretary of State's promise last year that the USA would
'not relax our commitment to advancing the cause of human rights'.

Amnesty International has repeatedly written to the US authorities
calling for the detainees to be treated in accordance with international
law and standards, and has also requested access to the Guantánamo
facility. It has received no response.

Recent reports have suggested that up to 10 per cent of the detainees
were transferred to Guantánamo despite having already been deemed to have
been of no intelligence value during interrogations in Afghanistan. Ten
months ago, a deputy commander at the base was reported to have said that
some of the detainees appeared to be 'victims of circumstance'.

"The importance of allowing these detainees to challenge the
lawfulness of their detention in a court of law cannot be overstated",
Amnesty International continued. "That is a fundamental human right, and
one that protects against arbitrary arrest and detention".

Among the early transferees were six Algerian nationals seized by US
officials in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Their case was described by a
representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as
one of 'extrajudicial removal from sovereign territory'.

Amnesty International is currently investigating reports that two
men, of Iraqi and Jordanian nationality, arrested and held incommunicado in
Gambia in November 2002 on suspicion of having links to al-Qa'ida, have
secretly been transferred to Guantánamo Bay.

"In his State of the Union Address last year, President Bush said
that the USA will lead by defending justice everywhere", Amnesty
International recalled. "It is time his government looked to its actions
with regard to the Guantánamo detainees."

Amnesty International has called for the voluntary repatriation of
all those detained as combatants during the international armed conflict in
Afghanistan, as required under the Geneva Conventions, unless they are to
be charged with criminal offences or would face serious human rights abuses
if returned to their country. Any other of the Guantánamo detainees should
be charged with recognizably criminal offences and tried within a
reasonable time, or released, but not returned to any country where they
would be at risk of torture, execution or other serious human rights
abuses.



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For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in
London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566
Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW. web:
http://www.amnesty.org

For latest human rights news view http://news.amnesty.org



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Nina Tesenfitz
Pressesprecherin
amnesty international
Sektion der Bundesrepublik Deutschland e.V.

amnesty international. Für die Menschenrechte.

Spendenkonto: 80 90 100
Bank für Sozialwirtschaft Köln, BLZ 370 205 00