Independent. 21 January 2002. Red Cross: US broke Geneva Conventions. Excerpts.
The Red Cross yesterday accused the US of violating the Geneva Conventions by releasing official photographs of the Taliban and al-Qa'ida fighters held at Guantanamo Bay. The charity, whose inspection teams are interviewing detainees at the US base in Cuba, said that the conventions clearly forbade exposing prisoners of war to "public curiosity". The charity believes the men -- shown shackled and wearing masks and goggles in photographs released last weekend -- should be treated as prisoners of war rather than "unlawful combatants," as the US continues to call them. Darcey Christen, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said that the third Geneva Convention made it clear that prisoners of war should not be exposed to "public curiosity." "I would consider this incompatible with the Geneva Conventions," he said. Washington says it is being "guided for the most part" by the Geneva Conventions. A federal judge in Los Angeles will today hear a petition backed by Ramsey Clark, the former Attorney-General, and other civil-rights campaigners, who claim that the detention of prisoners who haven't been charged is illegal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews
