Father caged in protest

2003-06-08 13:41

Adelaide, Australia - The father of an Australian imprisoned by the US military for allegedly fighting with the Taliban shut himself in a wire cage near the venue of a function attended by Prime Minister John Howard on Sunday to highlight his son's plight.

Terry Hicks said the cage was similar to his son David's accommodation at the US Camp X-Ray military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he has been held for 18 months without charge after being captured in Afghanistan.

Hicks said he was angry that a national of Australia, which is a US ally in the Afghanistan and Iraq campaigns, had done nothing to pressure Washington to reurn his son to face court in his own country.

"It's frustrating when it comes to government, you're banging your head against a brick wall, no one wants to talk to us," he told the Australian Associated Press. "This could be going on for another five years."

Hicks said the government had effectively washed its hands of his son.

"He is an Australian citizen," Hicks said. "The government is very quick off the mark to give the drug dealers and everyone else to have consular access and lawyers, but when it comes to David's situation, he has nothing. The Australian government aren't strong enough to push their point."

Human rights ignored

Lawyer Stephen Kenny accused the government of ignoring Hicks's human rights.

"The government have not even asked for David to be returned to Australia and that is a great disappointment considering the man has never been charged with any offence," Kenny said.

Howard avoided the protest outside a Liberal Party convention by slipping in through a side door.

About 650 men from some 40 different countries are being held without trial at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay. They are suspected of links with the al-Qaeda network or Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers.

Washington classifies the prisoners as "enemy combatants", effectively denying them the protection of the Geneva Conventions on the rights of prisoners of war. The uncertain status makes it possible to hold them indefinitely without trial.

A second Australia, Mamdouh Habib, is also being held at Camp X-Ray accused of links to the al-Qaeda terrorist organisation.

- AFX