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THE GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES

 

MEDIA RELEASE

For immediate release:

Friday, January 25, 2002

 

Contacts:

Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576,

nallen

Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624,

scottmclarty

 

 

U.S. TREATMENT OF AFGHAN PRISONERS VIOLATES GENEVA

CONVENTIONS, U.S. LAW

 

Greens warn that abuses, secret tribunals, and

double-talk about prisoners' legal status may squander

the international sympathy the U.S. had after the

September 11 attacks

 

 

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. "

< TARGET= " _blank " >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.greenpartyus.org