Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
June 7, 2008 U.N.: Detainees are victims, not combatants
By Frank Jordans, Associated Press
Geneva--A U.N. committee on child rights criticized the United States on Friday for filing war crimes charges against Guantanamo Bay detainees who were picked up as minors.
The detainees were recruited to fight while they were children and should therefore be treated as victims rather than unlawful enemy combatants, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child said.
U.S. officials say two men who were juveniles when they were detained remain at the island base. Canadian Omar Khadr, now 21, and Mohammed Jawad, an Afghan who the military says is about 23, face charges of murder and attempted murder, respectively, in attacks on U.S. troops in 2002.
"The committee is seriously concerned that children who were recruited or used in armed conflict ... have been charged with war crimes and subject to prosecution by military tribunals, without due account of their status as children," the committee said in a nine-page report.
U.S. officials in Geneva said they were unable to comment immediately on the report.
Last month, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Sandra Hodgkinson said she would review how many juveniles were detained at the military prison in Guantanamo after official documents cast doubt on the figures Washington has provided to the U.N. panel.
A lawyer who has reviewed the cases of several Guantanamo inmates says at least one detainee still being held at the prison was never recognized as a juvenile by the United States despite official records showing he was only 16 when he arrived there.
Clive Stafford-Smith, a lawyer with the British legal aid group Reprieve and a former attorney for the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights, says he has evidence Muhammed Al-Qarani, a citizen of Chad, may have been as young as 14 when he was first picked up at a mosque in Pakistan in October 2001.
The U.N. committee also expressed concern about the number of juveniles being held at U.S. detention facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Minors should only be imprisoned as a last resort and must be treated with special care because of their vulnerability, it said.
The United States has said it has detained 2,500 juveniles since 2002, almost all in Iraq.
The U.N. committee also urged the United States to raise the minimum age for military recruitment to 18 from 17.
It criticized the United States for failing to "prevent the deployment of volunteer recruits below the age of 18 years to Afghanistan and Iraq in 2003 and 2004."
U.S. officials say the minors were never deployed on combat operations.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch claim U.S. military recruiters regularly target persons younger than 17, in breach of the law.
The U.N. committee said it was concerned about the reports and recommended that U.S. legislation be changed to prevent recruiters from accessing school records against the wishes of parents or guardians.
June 7, 2008 U.N.: Detainees are victims, not combatants
By Frank Jordans, Associated Press
Geneva--A U.N. committee on child rights criticized the United States on Friday for filing war crimes charges against Guantanamo Bay detainees who were picked up as minors.
The detainees were recruited to fight while they were children and should therefore be treated as victims rather than unlawful enemy combatants, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child said.
U.S. officials say two men who were juveniles when they were detained remain at the island base. Canadian Omar Khadr, now 21, and Mohammed Jawad, an Afghan who the military says is about 23, face charges of murder and attempted murder, respectively, in attacks on U.S. troops in 2002.
"The committee is seriously concerned that children who were recruited or used in armed conflict ... have been charged with war crimes and subject to prosecution by military tribunals, without due account of their status as children," the committee said in a nine-page report.
U.S. officials in Geneva said they were unable to comment immediately on the report.
Last month, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Sandra Hodgkinson said she would review how many juveniles were detained at the military prison in Guantanamo after official documents cast doubt on the figures Washington has provided to the U.N. panel.
A lawyer who has reviewed the cases of several Guantanamo inmates says at least one detainee still being held at the prison was never recognized as a juvenile by the United States despite official records showing he was only 16 when he arrived there.
Clive Stafford-Smith, a lawyer with the British legal aid group Reprieve and a former attorney for the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights, says he has evidence Muhammed Al-Qarani, a citizen of Chad, may have been as young as 14 when he was first picked up at a mosque in Pakistan in October 2001.
The U.N. committee also expressed concern about the number of juveniles being held at U.S. detention facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Minors should only be imprisoned as a last resort and must be treated with special care because of their vulnerability, it said.
The United States has said it has detained 2,500 juveniles since 2002, almost all in Iraq.
The U.N. committee also urged the United States to raise the minimum age for military recruitment to 18 from 17.
It criticized the United States for failing to "prevent the deployment of volunteer recruits below the age of 18 years to Afghanistan and Iraq in 2003 and 2004."
U.S. officials say the minors were never deployed on combat operations.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch claim U.S. military recruiters regularly target persons younger than 17, in breach of the law.
The U.N. committee said it was concerned about the reports and recommended that U.S. legislation be changed to prevent recruiters from accessing school records against the wishes of parents or guardians.