News More prisoners from Afghanistan arrive in Cuba; human rights groups worried

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A third group of Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners from the U.S. war in Afghanistan arrived Jan. 16 at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as human rights groups debated their legal status.

U.S. officials sent 30 more detainees from the U.S. war on terrorism to the base in Cuba, bringing the number of captives held at the "Camp X-Ray" detention center to 80.

The United States says the captives shipped to Guantanamo from Afghanistan are not prisoners of war but are "unlawful combatants." This means that they are not entitled to the full protection of the Geneva Convention

In Geneva, the U.N. human rights chief said most legal experts disagreed with that view.

"The situation is complex (but)... the overwhelming view of legal opinion is that they were combatants in an international armed conflict," Mary Robinson, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters.

U.S. officials said the prisoners are being treated humanely.

Although none of the detainees have been identified by U.S. officials, a Saudi Interior Ministry official said Jan. 16 that some Saudis captured in Afghanistan were among detainees transferred to Guantanamo Bay

British officials have said three Britons are among the prisoners on the remote base.

アフガン捕虜、キューバへ移送

米軍は、アフガニスタンで身柄を拘束しているタリバンとアルカイダの捕虜をキューバのグアンタナモ米海軍基地へ移送し始めたが、彼らを国際法で保護される「捕虜」扱いしない米国に、人権団体は批判を強めている。

Shukan ST: Jan. 25, 2002

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