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Three youths returned to afghanistan Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/7832237.htmhttp://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/7832237.htm
Posted on Fri, Jan. 30, 2004
WAR ON TERRORISM | GUANTANAMO DETENTION
3 Afghan youths go home
Three boys held as terror suspects at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, are reunited with families in Afghanistan.
BY CAROL ROSENBERG
crosenberg@herald.com
The United States on Thursday sent back to their families in Afghanistan three teenagers whose detention at the terror prison in Guantánamo Bay had stirred international protests.
The boys were in generally good health and had seen doctors, dentists and mental health experts during their prison stay, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Barbara Burfeind, a Pentagon spokeswoman. One was treated for post-traumatic stress disorder.
In the chorus of human rights complaints about the terror prison in Guantánamo, America's holding of juveniles had drawn special criticism. International human rights groups say the 650 or so prisoners on the U.S. Navy base in southeastern Cuba should be freed unless they are given lawyers and trials or prisoner-of-war status.
SHOWCASE QUARTERS
Escorts at Guantánamo had made the boys' lockup -- a fenced-in, squat concrete-block building called Iguana House -- a showcase stop on a tour designed to illustrate that the prison is humane.
Guards hid the boys -- aged 13 to 15 -- from view in one portion of the four-bed building while showing reporters nature videos, math books and a soccer ball and describing a robust schedule of education, exercise, health care and periodic interrogation by U.S. intelligence agents.
The Pentagon said unnamed ''senior leadership'' consulted with unnamed ''U.S. government officials'' to decide that ''the juvenile detainees no longer posed a threat to our nation.'' Also, it said, they offered no further value to U.S. intelligence agencies and were deemed ineligible for trial on any crime.
The Pentagon said two boys were captured in U.S. and allied raids at a Taliban training camp and a third was captured ``trying to obtain weapons to fight American forces.''
Defense Department officials did not name the boys or their nationalities, saying they wanted to protect them from ''al Qaeda or Taliban sympathizers'' and ``return them to an environment where they have an opportunity to reintegrate into civil society.''
KABUL REUNION
But in Washington, Amanda Williamson of the International Committee of the Red Cross said an ICRC team interviewed them in Guantánamo Wednesday and another met them Thursday in Kabul, where they ``were reunited with their families.''
International human rights group hailed the boys' release. ''We've always maintained that, in particular for the young people, because they were so far away from their culture and their families, it wasn't an appropriate place to detain them,'' said Williamson. ``We really welcomed the decision to take them back home.''
Added William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA: ``The release of these children is long overdue, but does not let the U.S. off the hook for continued violations of the rights of hundreds of other detainees.''
Thursday's Pentagon statement made clear that the release does not signal any change in U.S. policy toward taking to Cuba children who are captured in the war on terror. ''Age is not a determining factor in detention,'' it said. The statement also revealed for the first time that the boys were segregated from adult suspects after medical exams determined their ages.
Iguana House was empty Thursday but will be maintained as an optional detention venue, said Army Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, the prison's Guantánamo spokeswoman.
The boys' release underscores the complicated process the Defense Department has established to release Guantánamo detainees. Commanders have said that military officers, intelligence agencies and civilian officials all must approve their release. Then, their countries must agree to take the captives, and in some cases to prosecute, monitor or incarcerate them.
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