Amnesty International on POWs
Amnesty has called for all parties to the conflict to adhere to Geneva Convention standards in the treatment of POWs.

Serious allegations of human rights violations do not stop with the Guant�namo detainees. US soldiers are reported to have mistreated people detained during the military conflict in Afghanistan. Villagers taken into custody in 2002 alleged that they were tied up, blindfolded, hooded, kicked, punched, and subject to other ill-treatment. As far as Amnesty International is aware, no appropriate investigation has been carried out into the allegations by the US authorities.(10)

In a letter to President Bush on 10 March 2003, Amnesty International called for a full, impartial inquiry into allegations of torture and ill-treatment by US personnel against alleged al-Qa'ida and Taleban detainees held in the US Air Base in Bagram, Afghanistan. Autopsies revealed that two prisoners who died in the Bagram detention facility in December 2002 had sustained "blunt force injuries". It has also been alleged that detainees have been subjected to "stress and duress" techniques, including hooding, prolonged standing in uncomfortable positions, sleep deprivation and 24 hour illumination. The ICRC has reportedly not been granted access to the section of the Bagram facility where this treatment has allegedly taken place.

Just as Bush was struck by lightning on the road to Baghdad and suddenly understood that chemical weapons are a bad thing, we can only hope he soon grasps that human rights are universal and apply to the US as well as Iraq. Any other position just makes human rights more tools for spin.