§ Lord Hyltonasked Her Majesty's Government:
(a) why, more than a year after the end of major fighting, the nine British citizens held at Guantanamo (Cuba) and Bagram (Afghanistan) have not been either charged or released;
(b) whether their future depends solely on the United States Government;
(c) if so, why; and
(d) whether it was correctly reported in some editions of The Times of 3 February that British officials warned the men that there is little that Her Majesty's Government can do to secure their release, despite their having answered intelligence questions. [HL1468]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Amos)The US has said that the detainees are enemy combatants captured in a continuing armed conflict and held in that capacity by the US military authorities. The question of the status of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay under international humanitarian law has to be considered in the light of the facts relating to each individual detainee.
We remain in regular contact with the United States, at both ministerial and official level, about the situation of the detainees. My right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary has raised the issue several times with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, most recently on 23 January. We have been encouraging the US to move forward with the process of determining the future of the British detainees. We shall continue to do so.
The discussions between British officials and the detainees are confidential as they contain personal information about the detainees. I am withholding further details of the visits by British officials to the detainees at Guantanamo Bay under exemption la of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information, (information whose disclosure would harm national security or defence).