Guantanamo fails to meet basic British standards-lawmakers

LONDON, Jan 21 (Reuters) The US detention centre in Guantanamo fails to meet even basic British standards for prisoners, British lawmakers who visited the base said today.

A cross-party parliamentary committee also said a new US military commissions system, expected to start trying terrorism suspects this year, gave cause for concern and London should raise any human rights misgivings with Washington.

Guantanamo ''fails to achieve minimum United Kingdom standards on access to exercise and recreation, to lawyers, and to the outside world through educational facilities and the media,'' the Foreign Affairs Committee said in a report.

Lawmakers on the committee visited the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in September last year.

''We conclude that abuse of detainees at Guantanamo Bay has almost certainly taken place in the past, but we believe it is unlikely to be taking place now,'' the report added.

Prime Minister Tony Blair, who stands down later this year after a decade in office, has come under fire from members of his Labour Party for failing to take a tougher line against US President George W Bush over Guantanamo.

British ministers in past months have grown more vocal in their criticism of the camp, with Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett saying in October the base was ineffective and damaging and calling the detention without trial of prisoners ''unacceptable'' in terms of human rights.

The Foreign Affairs Committee called on the British government to urgently study the US Military Commissions Act, signed into law last year, and challenge Washington if it concludes it contravenes human rights or international law.

Military prosecutors are expected to bring cases against 60 to 80 of the 395 detainees being held at Guantanamo, many suspected of being Taliban and al Qaeda members.

''Although some aspects of the Military Commissions Act are welcome, others give cause for concern,'' it said.

''If the government's study finds that the procedures proposed in the Military Commissions Act or in any subsequent elaboration are inconsistent with international law or human rights norms, it should make strong representations to the United States administration,'' the parliamentarians said.

The Pentagon on Thursday gave broad discretion to judges to decide what evidence may be presented against suspects.

The British lawmakers urged countries to shoulder their responsibility for their own nationals at Guantanamo to allow for its closure as soon as possible, and called on ministers to continue to raise human rights concerns over the treatment of detainees with US authorities.

Washington risked undermining the Geneva Conventions by choosing unilaterally to interpret their terms and provisions, they said, adding those Conventions needed to be updated to deal with modern-day warfare.

The committee urged the government to ensure any suspects detained by British forces in other countries cannot be transferred to Guantanamo without London's prior agreement.

REUTERS MQA BST0520