CNN news story reporting that International Committee of the Red Cross concerned that U.S. authorities were not providing information on the identities or whereabouts of certain detainees. Article references Taguba report on "ghost detainees."
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Red Cross fears U.S. hiding detainees
GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) -- The international Red Cross said Tuesday that it fears U S. officials are holding terror suspects secretly in locations across. the world.
flied States to give the Red Cross access to pnsoners ofThe Geneva Conventions on the conduct of warfare require the U. war and other detainees
We have access to people detained by the United States in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan and Iraq, but in our
understanding there are people that are detained outside these places for which we haven't received notification or
access," said Antonella Notan, a spokeswoman for the international Committee of the Red Cross
The United States says it is cooperating with the organization and has allowed Red Cross delegates access to thousands
of prisoners, including former Iraqi PresideokSaddam Hussein
But Notan told The Associated Press that some suspects reported as arrested by the FBI on its Web site, or identified in
media reports, are unaccounted for
Some of these people who have been reported to be arrested never showed up in any of the places of detention run by
the U S where we visit," Notan said
The U S government has not officially responded to a Red Crosi. demand for notification of all detainees, including those
held in undisclosed locations, she said
That request was made by ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger in January during a visit to Washington that featured
meetings with Secretary of State Cohn Powell, Deputy Defense :becretary Paul Wolfowitz and national secunty adviser
Condoleezza Rice
So far we haven't had a satisfactory reply," Notan said
Ghraib prison found that military police there "routinely held persons
An Army report on the abuses at Baghdad's Abu
brought to them by Other Government Agencies without accounting for them, knowing their identities, or even the reason for their detention "
On at least one occasion they moved these ghost detainees" around the prison to hide them from a visiting Red Cross delegation, the report by Maj Gen Antonio Taguba said He de..cn3ed the actions as deceptive, contrary to Army Doctrine, and in violation of international law "
In an interview in Tuesday's edition of the German business daily Handelsblatt, Kellenberger defended the Red Cross policy of refusing to comment publicly on the conditions that it finds in places of detention, preferring to negotiate directly
with the authonties
The international Red Cross owns under criticism for not speaking out about the abuse at Abu Ghraib until it was revealed in the media
Certain people had the impression that our repeated, confidential approaches to the U S authorities were falling flat,"
Kellenberger said DETAINEES-1351a 1 3 (0 Li
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'But impressions can be wrong When we visited Abu Ghraib in January 2004, we found improvements compared with October 2003, and when we visited in March it was better than in January "
The ICRC has, however, spoken out on its concerns over the continued detention without tnal of prisoners at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba
I made it clear in January that we were not happy with the improvements," Kellenberger said
The most recent visit has just finished We must now study the findings "
Copynght 2004 The Associated Press All rights reserved This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed
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