U.N. expert says Guantanamo visit deepens concerns

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

U.N. expert says Guantanamo visit deepens concerns
Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:16pm EST

GENEVA (Reuters) - A United Nations human rights
investigator said his visit to the U.S. military facility
in Guantanamo Bay last week left him wondering
whether it would be possible for detainees' lawyers to
mount an adequate defense.

Martin Scheinin visited the naval base in Cuba from
December 3-7 at the invitation of the U.S. government,
while a tribunal in the case of Salid Ahmed Hamdan,
an accused guard for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden,
was under way.

Scheinin did not address the details of that case in
his remarks to the 47-state U.N. Human Rights Council
on Wednesday. But he said: "The hearings provided
graphic illustrations of the practical difficulties in
providing fair trials at a distant military base."

He added they "confirmed the difficulties or even
impossibility of the defence to provide evidence, as
neither witnesses from abroad or high-value detainees
from the Guantanamo facility next door could be heard,
at least in this particular occasion."

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSHAR26561220071212

[Cleita]

1. In other words, they are conducting

fascist style kangaroo courts.

[rcsl1998]

2. How Many POW's re: Afghanistan & Iraq...

...are in US custody? (I'm not referring to 'enemy combatants')

[cal04]

3. UN Expert: Guantanamo Hearings Unfair

Source: Associated Press

A U.N. human rights expert said Wednesday he found on a recent visit to Guantanamo Bay that the prison camp is not meeting international justice standards.

Martin Scheinin, the U.N.'s independent investigator on human rights in the fight against terrorism, has been campaigning against the Bush administration's detention practices, military courts and interrogation techniques.

He said his visit to Guantanamo last week raised more questions about the legal framework used to prosecute detainees there.

"The hearings provided graphic illustrations of the practical difficulties in providing fair trials at a distant military base," said Scheinin, a Finnish law professor.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071213/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/un_guantanamo_1

[bullimiami]

4. its not a practical difficulty. its a kangaroo court held where it wont attract as much attention.

[existentialist]

5. but Martin Scheinin

is more diplomatic than your comments.

Not that you're wrong-you just don't have to play diplomat at the UN.

[Solly Mack]

6. So what can the UN do to help change all that?