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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (99364)	5/29/2003 12:19:56 AM
From: Jacob Snyder	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Amnesty International 2003 report: USA amnestyusa.org More than 600 foreign nationals – most arrested during the military conflict in Afghanistan – were detained without charge or trial or access to counsel or family members in the US naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The USA refused to recognize them as prisoners of war or allow their status to be determined by a "competent tribunal" as required under the Geneva Conventions. A number of suspected members of al-Qa'ida reported to have been taken into US custody continued to be held in undisclosed locations. The US government failed to provide clarification on the whereabouts and legal status of those detained, or to provide them with their rights under international law, including the right to inform their families of their place of detention and the right of access to outside representatives. An unknown number of detainees originally in US custody were allegedly transferred to third countries, a situation which raised concern that the suspects might face torture during interrogation. Two US nationals continued to be held in incommunicado detention without charge or trial as "enemy combatants" in military custody in the USA at the end of the year. In March, the Department of Defense released the operating procedures for the trial of non-US nationals by the military commissions established by presidential order in 2001. By the end of the year, no one had been named to appear before such commissions. AI believes that trials before such bodies, which would have the power to impose death sentences, would violate fundamental fair trial standards. There were allegations of ill-treatment of civilians during raids by US ground forces in Afghanistan. During a raid in Uruzgan province in January, US Special Forces killed at least 16 villagers, some of whose bodies were discovered with their hands tied behind their backs. Some 27 villagers taken into US custody during the raid were allegedly hooded, blindfolded, tied up and flown to the US base in Kandahar, where they were allegedly kicked, beaten and punched by US soldiers. A 17-year-old alleged that he was kept in solitary confinement in a shipping container for eight days. All the detainees were released two weeks later, after it had been determined that they were members of neither al-Qa'ida nor the Taleban. In 2002, 69 men and two women were executed, bringing to 820 the total number of prisoners put to death since the US Supreme Court lifted a moratorium on executions in 1976. On 6 May, the US government wrote to the UN Secretary-General to inform him that the USA did not intend to become a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and therefore "has no legal obligations arising from its signature on December 31, 2000". During the year, the US approached several governments requesting that they enter into agreements that they would not surrender US nationals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes to the new International Criminal Court. In some cases, the US government threatened to withdraw military assistance from countries that would not agree. AI condemned such actions as undermining the treaty.