US applies Geneva Convention to military detainees

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon acknowledged for the
first time that all detainees held by the U.S. military are
covered by the protections of an article of the Geneva
Conventions that bars inhumane treatment, according to a memo
made public on Tuesday.

The memo signed by Gordon England, the No. 2 official in
the Defense department, followed a June 29 Supreme Court ruling
that struck down as illegal the military tribunal system set up
by the Bush administration to try foreign terrorism suspects
held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The United States previously has determined that certain
prisoners taken in Washington’s war on terrorism are not
deserving of all of the protections of the Geneva Conventions
– international agreements governing the treatment of
prisoners of war.

The memo was made public on the day Congress began hearings
on how to proceed in trying Guantanamo prisoners after the high
court ruling.

The United States has come under international criticism
for how it has treated detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib
prison in Iraq and elsewhere.

The memo, dated July 7, stated that detainees held in U.S.
military custody worldwide are covered by Common Article 3 of
the Geneva Conventions of 1949, which ensures their humane
treatment.

The article prohibits violence against detainees, including
mutilation, cruel treatment and torture, and “outrages upon
personal dignity” including humiliating and degrading
treatment.” It also ensures care for the sick and wounded.

It also bars sentencing or executing prisoners without a
decision by “a regularly constituted court affording all the
judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by
civilized peoples.”

The administration argued the move was not a dramatic
change because the Defense Department already had a policy of
treating detainees humanely.

“It is not really a reversal of policy,” said White House
spokesman Tony Snow. “Humane treatment has always been the
standard, and that is something that they followed at
Guantanamo.”

England, the deputy secretary of defense, said in his memo
that it was “my understanding” that aside from the military
trial procedures that the Supreme Court struck down, “existing
DoD (Department of Defense) orders, policies, directives,
execute orders, and doctrine comply with the standards of
Common Article 3…”

These include existing military manuals governing
interrogations and medical care for detainees, the memo said.