Indexing for the UN_list. Click Mary Robinson's mug to see the list.
Posted on 01/16/2002 8:55:32 AM PST by RCW2001
|
Jan. 16 GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N. human rights chief Mary Robinson said Wednesday the 50 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters being held at a U.S. Navy base in Cuba were prisoners of war and entitled to the protection of international law. Robinson said most legal experts disagreed with Washington's view that the fighters were "illegal combatants" and therefore not protected by the Geneva Conventions on prisoners rights. "The situation is complex (but) ... the overwhelming view of legal opinion is that they were combatants in an international armed conflict," the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights told reporters. "Their status is defined and protected by the Geneva conventions of 1949 -- they are prisoners of war," she said. Robinson added that if there was any doubt about their status, the Geneva protocols -- which the United States has signed -- called for the question to be decided by a tribunal. Human rights groups have already expressed outrage at the fact that prisoners were shackled, handcuffed and blindfolded for the flight from Afghanistan to the camp at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay, where they are locked up in outdoor cages. Robinson, a former President of Ireland, expressed concern about the conditions under which the detainees were being held. "We are very concerned and are seeking to ascertain more information," Robinson said. Although Washington says the prisoners -- the first of several hundred captives due to be flown out of Afghanistan -- are not entitled to the full protection of the Geneva protocols, it says that they are being treated humanely. Robinson repeated that the September 11 attacks in the United States were a crime against humanity and that the perpetrators must be brought to justice, but said it was essential that existing international human rights norms and standards be respected. The detainees were captured in a U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan that swept from power the hard-line Taliban rulers as punishment for harboring al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, accused by Washington of masterminding the September 11 attacks. |
......or more simply, we would have been well within our rights to march them to the nearest wall to be shot.
Maybe among her parlor guests!
P.S.
One lawschool breakfast club today agreed that under written law (not common practice precedant) the detainess are kidnap victims. Politics had nothing to do with it, just a cold, unbiased look at written law.
Amy
She says that, but one only needs to look at where her energies have been expended to understand what she really believes.
Go Pound Sand!
What a moron.
FMCDH
Pi$$ on the Geneva Convention, when have we ever fought enemies that actually abided by the dang thing?
Total war against Islamic radicals is merely self defense.
Our military must agree with this because if you look at this post, we admit to honoring the Geneva Convention in Afghanistan.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.