Posted on 28-5-2003
US
Plans Death Camp
The Courier-Mail
,Monday 26 May 2003
The US has floated plans to turn Guantanamo Bay into
a death camp, with its own death row and execution chamber.
Prisoners would be tried, convicted and executed without
leaving its boundaries, without a jury and without right of
appeal, The Mail on Sunday newspaper reported yesterday.
The plans were revealed by Major-General Geoffrey Miller, who
is in charge of 680 suspects from 43 countries, including two
Australians.
The suspects have been held at Camp Delta on Cuba without
charge for 18 months.
General Miller said building a death row was one plan. Another
was to have a permanent jail, with possibly an execution chamber.
The Mail on Sunday reported the move is seen as logical
by the US, which has been attacked worldwide for breaching the
Geneva Convention on prisoners of war since it established the
camp at a naval base to hold alleged terrorists from Afghanistan.
But it has horrified human rights groups and lawyers
representing detainees.
They see it as the clearest indication America has no
intention of falling in line with internationally recognised
justice.
The US has already said detainees would be tried by tribunals,
without juries or appeals to a higher court. Detainees will
be allowed only US lawyers.
British activist Stephen Jakobi, of Fair Trials Abroad,
said: "The US is kicking and screaming against any pressure
to conform with British or any other kind of international justice."
American law professor Jonathan Turley, who has led US
civil rights group protests against the military tribunals planned
to hear cases at Guantanamo Bay, said: "It is not surprising
the authorities are building a death row because they have said
they plan to try capital cases before these tribunals.
"This camp was created to execute people. The administration
has no interest in long-term prison sentences for people it
regards as hard-core terrorists."
Britain admitted it had been kept in the dark about the
plans.
A Downing St spokesman said: "The US Government
is well aware of the British Government's position on the death
penalty."
|