SEAN LOVE,
Sir, - Amnesty International has campaigned for many years on human rights violations in Afghanistan committed by the Taliban and others. The Taliban were the de facto government of Afghanistan at the start of the recent conflict. As such, they should be treated as a government, until the end of military operations, for the purpose of applying the relevant laws of war, specifically those regulating international armed conflict. Amnesty presumes the prisoners being held at Guantanamo are prisoners of war.
Any Taliban fighter, or any member of Al-Qaeda captured by the US, must be protected as a POW, as must any US soldier captured by the Taliban or Al-Qaeda. Such status would not prevent them being brought to justice for alleged crimes against humanity, war crimes, human rights violations or other offences committed before their capture.
If there is any dispute over the prisoners' status, it should be resolved by a proper tribunal, such as an independent US court. Neither Donald Rumsfeld nor any other US administration official has the right to decide that these men are not POWs.
Countries wanting to be part of the international community must respect the international laws they have written if they are to distinguish themselves from pariah regimes.
The US has obligations under international law to treat these prisoners humanely. Any of the prisoners suspected of a crime, whether or not they are POWs, must be charged with a criminal offence and tried fairly. Denying POWs or others protected by the Geneva Convention a fair trial is itself a war crime. - Yours, etc.,
SEAN LOVE,
Director,
Amnesty International,
Irish Section,
Dublin 2.
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Sir, - Concerning the treatment of Al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners of war, shaved (most surely against their will), shackled, sedated, hooded, caged in solitary confinement - is this treatment moral, just, noble?
There is one very practical reason for treating enemy prisoners with basic human decency, a point I learnt at my father's knee (he was a sergeant in the RAF) 40 years ago: quite simply, if you treat enemy prisoners badly, then God help any of your men who are captured. - Yours, etc.,
STUART McINTYRE,
Cork Peace Alliance,
Lower John Street,
Cork.