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US detainees have rights
11/07/2006 17:46 - (SA)
Washington - The Bush administration said on Tuesday that all detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and in all other US military custody around the world are entitled to protections under the Geneva Conventions.
White House spokesperson Tony Snow said the policy, outlined in a new defence department memo, reflects the recent 5-3 Supreme Court decision blocking military tribunals set up by President George W Bush.
The policy, described in a memo by deputy defence secretary Gordan England, appears to reverse the administration's earlier insistence that the detainees are not prisoners of war and thus subject to the Geneva protections.
Snow insisted that all US detainees have been treated humanely. Still, he said, "We want to get it right".
"It's not really a reversal of policy," Snow asserted, calling the Supreme Court decision "complex".
He said efforts to spell out more clearly the rights of detainees does not change the president's determination to work with congress to enable the administration to proceed with the military tribunals, or commissions.
The goal is "to find a way to properly do this in a way consistent with national security," Snow said.
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