May 26, 2003

THE US has float­ed plans to turn Guantanamo Bay into a death camp, with its own death row and execution chamber.

Prisoners would be tried, con­vict­ed and exe­cut­ed with­out leav­ing its bound­aries, with­out a jury and with­out right of appeal, The Mail on Sunday news­pa­per reported yesterday.

The plans were revealed by Major-General Geoffrey Miller, who is in charge of 680 sus­pects from 43 coun­tries, includ­ing two Australians.

The sus­pects have been held at Camp Delta on Cuba with­out charge for 18 months.

General Miller said build­ing a death row was one plan. Another was to have a per­ma­nent jail, with pos­si­bly an execution chamber.

The Mail on Sunday report­ed the move is seen as log­i­cal by the US, which has been attacked world­wide for breach­ing the Geneva Convention on pris­on­ers of war since it estab­lished the camp at a naval base to hold alleged ter­ror­ists from Afghanistan.

But it has hor­ri­fied human rights groups and lawyers representing detainees.

They see it as the clear­est indi­ca­tion America has no inten­tion of falling in line with inter­na­tion­al­ly recognised justice.

The US has already said detainees would be tried by tri­bunals, with­out juries or appeals to a high­er court. Detainees will be allowed only US lawyers.

British activist Stephen Jakobi, of Fair Trials Abroad, said: ​“The US is kick­ing and scream­ing against any pres­sure to con­form with British or any oth­er kind of international justice.”

American law pro­fes­sor Jonathan Turley, who has led US civ­il rights group protests against the mil­i­tary tri­bunals planned to hear cas­es at Guantanamo Bay, said: ​“It is not sur­pris­ing the author­i­ties are build­ing a death row because they have said they plan to try cap­i­tal cas­es before these tribunals.

“This camp was cre­at­ed to exe­cute peo­ple. The admin­is­tra­tion has no inter­est in long-term prison sen­tences for peo­ple it regards as hard-core terrorists.”

Britain admit­ted it had been kept in the dark about the plans.

A Downing St spokesman said: ​“The US Government is well aware of the British Government’s posi­tion on the death penalty.”