Re: Taleban were not the recognized government of Afghanistan
Answers to your points by the lawyer who wrote the original legal opinion re Geneva Convention as it applies to people captured in Afghanistan.
I have no legal opinion on the subject but re Taleban not being recognized, I know your point is not valid. And as for the Northern Alliance being the internationally recognized government of Afghanistan, well, I agree completely with his view below.
You had said:
Your friend misses the fact that the Taleban were not the recognized government of Afghanistan. The exiled government, represented in the Northern Alliance and headed by Rabbani, was the internationally recognized government of Afghanistan. Again, the Taleban, and the al Qaeda that fought with them, were unlawful combatants in every sense. And thus were not due the protections of POW status.
And here's the lawyer's opinion:
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Not much time to go into it properly but whoever this guy is he is missing Art 4(A)(3) "Prisoners of war, in the sense of the present Convention, are persons belonging to one of the following categories, who have fallen into the power of the enemy:
[...]
(3) Members of regular armed forces who profess allegiance to a government or an authority not recognized by the Detaining Power"
One can argue (and he surely will) about whether al Qaeda constituted "regular" armed forces for the purpose of the convention. This isn't defined and the meaning is unclear but I would argue, especially in the context of the rest of Art 4, that it includes any organised military movement such
as Al Qaeda. Anyway the point is that the convention is clear on the fact that the fact a government isn't recognised (and the Taliban WERE recognised by a number of countries, and armed by the US - "How do we know Saddam has weapons of mass destruction? We checked the receipt." - Bill Hicks) does not release a country from it's responsibilities under the convention. And to say that the Northern Alliance was the internationally recognised government is so wrong it's almost funny. Nobody knew who it was (and it barely existed) until the US decided to set it up and support it to give them exactly the kind of excuse for bombing the hell out of everything else that your "friend" is appealing to.
If you need the text of the convention it's at
unhchr.ch
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