THE US: In a robust and unapologetic defence of the "humane" treatment by the United States of detainees in Guantanamo Base,Cuba the US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, yesterday attacked what he called "hyperbole" and "utter nonsense" in newspaper headlines over the last few days.
Facing down journalists at a Pentagon press conference for over an hour, Mr Rumsfeld insisted that the treatment was "proper, it's humane, it's appropriate, and it is fully consistent with international conventions."
He said the Geneva Conventions call for so-called "unlawful combatants" to be treated humanely, and the US military is treating them humanely. "No detainee has been harmed. No detainee has been mistreated in any way," he said, dismissing the concerns about open-air cells with comments about Cuba's beautiful weather and an insistence that more permanent accommodation is being constructed.
The detainees are receiving "warm showers, toiletries, water, clean clothes, blankets, regular, culturally appropriate meals, prayer mats, and the right to practise their religions," in addition to modern medical care, writing materials and visits from the International Red Cross, he said. In transit, "when bad things happen", it was reasonable for guards to take particular care and special precautions with "deadly prisoners".
In the clearest statement yet of US longer term intentions, Mr Rumsfeld said the prisoners were initially being questioned for intelligence about terrorist operations and would "at some point either be charged or released". He said the location where they would face charges had yet to be decided but it was likely some of them would end up before civil courts, some would face courts martial and others, military tribunals.
While insisting that legal arguments about their status were largely a matter for lawyers, he defended the rationale for the distinction drawn in the Geneva Conventions between lawful and unlawful combatants. He argued that it would be wrong to confer on those who concealed their real nature as combatants the same status and rights as soldiers who wore uniforms and displayed their arms clearly.
It would also be "unreasonable" and a "dangerous precedent", he said, to give a terrorist organisation the status of a state. But arguments about status should not detract, he said, from the reality that the prisoners were in effect being treated in accordance with the conventions.
Meanwhile a US district court in Los Angeles was yesterday hearing arguments from civil rights lawyers seeking an order to require the government to produce the detainees before a US court to determine their status.
Rachel Donnelly reports from London: Amnesty International has said the US would be guilty of a "war crime" if al-Qaeda suspects held at Guantanamo Bay were denied the right to a fair trial.
Requesting access to the prisoners yesterday, Mr Christopher Hall, a legal adviser to Amnesty International, said the suspects were prisoners of war with a "fundamental right" to a fair trial.
"The denial of the right to a fair trial is a breach of those conventions - that is, it's a war crime. We are calling on the USA to respect its legal obligations to ensure the rights of its detainees," he said.
The organisation also said the report of the British officials who recently visited the prison camp could not be regarded as impartial. The group reported that Britons being held had no complaints.
AFP and Reuters add: The European Union Foreign Affairs spokesman, Mr Solana, yesterday urged the United States to eschew "global unilateralism" and said the EU must address the roots of conflict in poverty as well as its consequences. In a speech to the Nieuwspoort international press centre in the Hague, he suggested the fight against terrorism would have long-term success only if the US worked with Europe and Russia through multilateral institutions.
The Spanish Foreign Minister, Mr Josep Pique appeared to distance Madrid from the EU foreign policy chief, his fellow-Spaniard. He told reporters: "We don't see any need for the EU to address this (prisoners) problem specifically, unless a number of member states ask for it." But he added that Madrid also had "no doubt about the absolute necessity of upholding human rights in the battle against terrorism".
