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Sent: Friday, November 14, 2003 11:49 AM
Subject: [unioNews] U.S.: Bush-Blair Talks Must Ensure Fair Trials at Guantanamo


From Human Rights Watch 

U.S.: Bush-Blair Talks Must Ensure Fair Trials at Guantanamo

(Washington, D.C., November 14, 2003) -- British Prime
Minister Tony Blair should insist in his meeting next week
with U.S. President George W. Bush that no detainee at
Guantanamo Bay be tried in proceedings that fail to meet
international standards of due process, Human Rights Watch
said today. The two leaders are scheduled to meet during
President Bush's visit to London on November 18-21.

"The detainees have been held far too long without any kind
of legal process," said Wendy Patten, U.S. advocacy director
at Human Rights Watch. "But the military commissions
proposed by the Bush administration will not provide a fair
trial."

Following the announcement in July that two Britons were
among the first six detainees President Bush declared
eligible for trial by military commission, the British
government raised serious concerns about due process. The
U.S. government agreed to suspend proceedings against the
two British nationals, Moazzam Begg and Feroz Abbasi, until
these concerns were resolved. The U.S. and Australian
governments are involved in similar talks regarding an
Australian national, David Hicks, who is also among the
first six detainees slated for possible trial by military
commission.

The talks thus far have failed to yield progress on the most
serious deficiencies in the structure of the military
commissions. The British government has obtained little
beyond assurances that the two Britons will not be subject
to the death penalty and that the U.S. government will not
eavesdrop on their conversations with their lawyers. Blair
has indicated that the two Britons may be repatriated if the
two governments fail to reach agreement on the British
government's remaining concerns. While repatriation would
avoid trial by military commission for these two men, it
would do nothing to address the fundamental concerns about
due process raised by the proposed military commissions
before which the remaining Guantanamo detainees may be
tried.

Human Rights Watch insists that no one be tried by the
proposed military commissions unless the rules are changed
to ensure fair trials. Among the principal due process
problems are:

- Lack of independent appeal - Detainees tried before
military commissions will not be allowed access to
independent civilian courts for review of any convictions
and sentences.  Trial results will be reviewed by military
review panels, then by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld and, ultimately, by President Bush. Review of trial
decisions, no matter how erroneous or arbitrary, will remain
wholly within the military chain of command. By contrast,
U.S. service members tried by courts martial may appeal to
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and then to
the U.S. Supreme Court. The failure to provide this same
right of appeal to those detainees who should have been
classified as prisoners of war is a violation of the Third
Geneva Convention.

- Restrictions on an effective defense - The military
commissions' rules place numerous restrictions on the
ability of defense lawyers to mount an effective defense.
Among the most important restrictions are: infringing upon
the defendant's right to counsel of choice by requiring him
or her to accept a military defense lawyer as part of his or
her defense team; monitoring attorney-client conversations;
failing to guarantee access by a civilian defense lawyer to
all of the evidence against the defendant or to all of the
proceedings in the case; and prohibiting defense counsel
from talking to the press or the public about the case
without prior permission from military officials.

- Improperly subjecting civilians to military jurisdiction -
The military commissions will be permitted to try persons
who were never combatants and whose connection to armed
conflict may be tenuous at best. For example, a non-U.S.
citizen living in the United States who has financially
contributed to al-Qaeda could be prosecuted before a
military commission for "aiding and abetting" the enemy.
With U.S. courts fully functioning, there is no
justification for subjecting civilians to military trial and
violating their right to a hearing by an independent and
impartial tribunal.

"Trials of the Guantanamo detainees must be scrupulously
fair, both to protect the rights of the accused and to
ensure the legitimacy of any verdict in the eyes of the
world," said Patten.

For nearly two years, the United States has held detainees
at its naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Nine Britons are
among the approximately 660 persons detained by the United
States at Guantanamo. The Bush administration claims the
detainees are all enemy combatants who are not entitled to
prisoner of war status, even though the U.S. government has
refused to afford them individual hearings to determine
their status, as required by the Third Geneva Convention. By
contrast, the U.S. government conducted over one thousand
such hearings during the 1991 Gulf War and has conducted
numerous such hearings in Iraq since the recent armed
conflict. The Bush administration continues to oppose
judicial review of the detentions at Guantanamo. On November
10, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider whether U.S.
courts should be open to hear claims of unlawful detention
by Guantanamo detainees.


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