- RIYADH - Saudi Arabia said Monday that most of the prisoners being held
at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo, Cuba, are Saudis and should be treated
according to Saudi law - although it did not specify what that would
entail.
-
- Interior Minister Prince Nayef told the
official Saudi Press Agency that of the 158 Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners
being held at the Guantanamo Bay camp, 100 are Saudis.
-
- Nayef told SPA he did not know on what
charges the Saudis were being held. The prisoners are former Taliban and
al-Qaeda fighters rounded up in Afghanistan by U.S. forces during the hunt
for Osama bin Laden.
-
- He said Saudi officials are monitoring
the prisoners' treatment, and in a Saudi newspaper report he said he hoped
for co-operation between the Saudi and U.S. governments.
-
- The debate within the U.S. administration
over whether the Geneva Conventions should dictate the prisoners' treatment
has still not been settled. However White House spokesman Ari Fleischer
reaffirmed on Monday the administration's belief that the prisoners are
"unlawful combatants," rather than prisoners of war.
-
- Human rights groups have been critical
of the conditions in which the prisoners are being kept, but Fleischer
said Monday anyone held by the U.S. military is always treated humanely.
-
- Nayef did not say what Saudi Arabia would
do with the men if the U.S. handed them over. However, he insisted Saudi
Arabia would not be satisfied with the conclusions of U.S. investigators
and would conduct its own interrogations.
-
- Yemen has also asked the U.S. for information
on 10 of its nationals being held at the camp.
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- Written by CBC News Online staff http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/view?/news/2002/01/28/prisoners_020128
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