Red Cross: Bush should call detainees prisoners of war

? The international Red Cross said Friday that President Bush’s promise that Taliban fighters in U.S. detention will be covered by the Geneva Conventions still falls short of the requirements of international law.

Red Cross officials said Taliban and al-Qaida fighters must be considered prisoners of war something the Bush administration said it would not do. The White House also said that while members of the former ruling Afghan militia would be covered by the Geneva Conventions, fighters for Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida would not.

“The ICRC stands by its position that people in a situation of international conflict are considered to be prisoners of war unless a competent tribunal decides otherwise,” said Kim Gordon-Bates, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The comment by the ICRC the official guardians of the Geneva Conventions came as Britain and Germany welcomed the U.S. announcement.

The office of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said it was waiting for an expert opinion on Bush’s statement, but UNHCR spokesman Jose Luis Diaz said, “It looks like a step forward on the issue of the treatment of the prisoners.”

The Bush administration said its announcement did not mean a change in the treatment of Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners since the 186 prisoners held at a U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were already being treated humanely.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the decision was made to set a precedent to ensure any future Americans held prisoner are well treated.

Bush refused to consider classifying the fighters as prisoners of war, denying them a wide range of rights and privileges afforded to POWs under the Geneva Conventions. For example, POWs must be returned to their home country once the war is over.

The White House also said al-Qaida members are not covered by the conventions, which it said apply to nations at war, not terrorist groups.

Rumsfeld said Friday that Taliban detainees failed to meet the conventions’ criteria for POW status because they did not wear uniforms meant to set them apart from civilians and were not organized in military units with identifiable chains of command.

Gordon-Bates said ICRC lawyers are studying Bush’s declaration in detail before they make any further comment.

The neutral, Swiss-run ICRC is mandated by the 1949 Geneva Conventions on warfare to oversee protection of POWs and other victims of war. It lacks enforcement powers.

The Geneva Conventions, four treaties drawn up to avoid recurrences of World War II atrocities, were intended to regulate wars between nations and rebellions or insurgencies within a nation.

The International Commission of Jurists backed the ICRC. Bush’s decision “is incorrect in law,” it said.

The Geneva-based organization, made up of 45 legal experts from different countries, works to uphold the rule of law and freedom of courts around the world.