CHILDREN HELD AT CAMP X-RAY

CHILDREN HELD AT CAMP X-RAY
Apr 24 2003
By Mark Ellis
Daily Mirror
April 24, 2003
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THREE of the terror suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay are aged just 16 and younger, America admitted yesterday.

Human rights groups criticised them for holding "captured children" without charge or access to lawyers in the top-security Camp X-ray in Cuba.

The US authorities were shamed into admitting three inmates are teenagers, following an expose by an Australian TV station.

But they refused to disclose the age of the youngest detainee.

Spokesman Lt Col Barry Johnson said the number of teenagers was "very few" and they were being held in a "communal setting" away from adult captives.

But he added that they had been "captured as active combatants against US forces" and were considered as enemy combatants.

The news brought fresh criticism from human rights groups opposed to the indefinite detention of the 660 men from 42 countries suspected of links to al-Qaeda.

Alistair Hodgett, of Amnesty International, said: "That the US sees nothing wrong with holding children at Guantanamo and interrogating them is a shocking indicator of how cavalier the Bush administration has become about respecting human rights."

James Ross, of the New York Human Rights Watch, said: "Detaining youths reflects our broader concerns that the US never properly determined the legal status of those held in the conflict.''

The age of the youngest inmates was discovered during routine medicals and screenings.

Last September, Canadian officials reported that a 15-year-old Canadian had been captured on July 27 after being badly wounded in a firefight in eastern Afghanistan.

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