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Friday, January 25, 2002
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S.
may be violating international rules in the inhumane treatment of Afghan
soldiers taken prisoner in the war against Afghanistan, said members of
the Green Party of the United States. According to reports, prisoners
have been shackled, shaved in violation of their religion, blindfolded,
held in open-air cages exposed to the elements, subjected to intense
interrogation that borders on torture, all of which violate the
international Geneva Convention on the treatment of war prisoners.
"Prisoners may also face execution after a secret trial by military
tribunal -- which would made the Bush Administration comparable to the
regimes of Saddam Hussein and other despots," said Tom Sevigny, a
Connecticut Green activist and a member of the party's national steering
committee. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who promises "a
legal decision soon" on the status of prisoners (Pentagon briefing,
Thursday, January 24), has claimed that the prisoners aren't soldiers,
but civilian "unlawful combatants." According to Rumsfeld,
this disqualifies them from the protections of the 1949 Geneva
Convention rules and the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, ratified by the U.S. in 1992, on the treatment of prisoners of
war.
But Greens, the Bar Association of Great Britain, and other human rights
defenders argue that if the captured Taliban and al Qaeda aren't
soldiers, they must be tried according to guarantees of due process,
since the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution makes no distinction
between civilians and foreigners.
"There is no justification for treating the prisoners as subhuman
because the Taliban didn't give them uniforms," added Sevigny.
"The arguments from Rumsfeld that the U.S. is exempt from the
Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners is sophistry of the
worst kind."
The Green Party cites U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson,
who said, "The armed conflict in Afghanistan is of an international
nature and the law of international armed conflict applies. That means
the Geneva Conventions."
"Article 5 of the Third Geneva Convention provides that should
there be doubt as to whether an individual enjoys POW status, they shall
be treated as such until their status has been determined by a competent
judicial tribunal." <http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=115264>
Greens also note that the Bush Administration isn't likely to rescind
its order for secret military tribunals.
"More and more, the only pacts the U.S. considers itself bound to
honor are the free trade treaties designed to benefit major
corporations," said Jane Hunter, vice chair of the Green Party of
New Jersey and an international management consultant. "The result
is international instability and a blow to our valued international
reputation on matters of democracy and human
rights."
MORE INFORMATION
The Green Party of the United States
http://gpus.org
http://www.gp.org
Contacts:
Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576, nallen@acadia.net
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, scottmclarty@yahoo.com
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