All prisoners in Iraq must be freed: Amnesty International

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2004/June/focusoniraq_June245.xml§ion=focusoniraq

LONDON - All prisoners held in Iraq must be released after the handover of sovereignty and any further detentions by the US-led coalition would be illegal, human rights watchdog Amnesty International said on Monday.

“The USA has announced that it intends to continue to hold, without charge, between 4,000 and 5,000 detainees without clarifying on what legal basis it will do so,” the group said.

“Yet if, as the UN resolution (1546) proclaims, occupation effectively ends with the handover, then international humanitarian law requires that all prisoners of war, detainees and internees must be released by the occupying powers,” it said in a statement.

The US-led coalition’s civil administrator Paul Bremer on Monday handed a document to Iraqi leaders, which formally ended -- two days earlier than expected -- the US-led occupation of Iraq and returned sovereignty to Iraqis.

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[Frangible]

1. Why stop breaking international law now?

The Bush Administration has proven it's happy to hold American citizens without trial, I wouldn't expect them to care much about Iraqi prisoners they write memos authorizing the torture of.

[patdem]

2. Lets see...now the justification for the invasion was a UN.

resolution...must we now invade the US???

[denverbill]

3. Methinks, at minimum, we should put Iraqi guards at the prisons.

I have no doubt some of the people we've got in jail actually belong there. Some were Saddam's bigwig buddies who committed crimes against the Iraqi people, and I'm sure the Iraqi people want them prosecuted. Some are terrorists who have killed innocent civilians. Some are insurgents who have killed US soldiers.

However, now it's up to the Iraqi people to decide who is guilty and who is innocent.