Release of Terror Suspects Is Sought

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — Human Rights Watch has urged the United States to release terrorism suspects detained for longer than a year at Guantanamo Bay without charge or legal counsel, the group said Friday.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, sent Thursday and released to the media Friday, the group said there was no legal basis to continue holding Taliban soldiers and civilians at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.

On Thursday, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello, met with President Bush and urged him to try the prisoners or free them.

Also, the commander of the detention mission has recommended the release of some prisoners, though he would not say when or how many. The 650 detainees are from 43 countries.

“The decision on transferring these enemy combatants back to their home countries will be made by the highest levels of our government,” Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller told Associated Press. “They may be there for weeks or months.”

Many countries have complained that the conditions of detention at Guantanamo -- initially in mesh wire cells that critics likened to animal cages, and being held without charges or counsel -- were inhumane and violated Geneva Conventions on prisoners of war.

Human Rights Watch says the Geneva Conventions allow the United States to hold POWs without charge during a war; once the war ends -- as it has in Afghanistan -- prisoners must be released.

The United States doesn’t call the detainees POWs and says they are treated humanely.