From yesterday’s Guardian: “Children younger than 16 are being held as ‘enemy combatants’ in the American detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, the US military admitted yesterday, a practice human rights groups condemned as repugnant and illegal. Three boys aged between 13 and 15 are among about 660 inmates at the controversial camp, a US military official told the Guardian, on condition of anonymity. The official would not disclose their nationalities but said they had been brought from Afghanistan this year on suspicion of terrorism.”

The children are being held separately from other inmates, can socialize with each other and are receiving “some basic education in terms of reading and writing”. Efforts are also under way to contact their home nations. But they will still be held “indefinitely”, and will not be granted access to lawyers, because the US continues to view them as “enemy combatants” (a term that has no basis under international law).

This is not only abhorrent; it’s also grossly stupid. What better recruiting sergeant could terrorist groups the world over have than the US imprisoning children “indefinitely”? Habeas corpus is supposed to be a fundamental right for everyone, let alone minors, yet Washington has casually cast it aside in its war against an abstract noun. The US has not ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and there’s not far to look for the reason why. However, it is a signatory, so it has “an obligation not to defeat the object and purpose of the treaty” -- I think it’s clear just how seriously the “president” and his administration take that responsibility.

America already executes children who were under 18 when they committed a crime, and the Republicans have now added this outrage to that shameful record.

With actions like this done in the name of what they’re supposedly fighting against, what exactly is the Republican administration fighting for?

(Edited by Byron 25/04/2003 15:09)