Khaled Al-Mahdi, Arab News

SANAA, 13 April 2004 — Arab and Western lawyers and rights activists called on the United States on Sunday to put an end to the “vague” legal status of Guantanamo detainees.

At the end of a two-day conference under the motto “Human Rights for All”, 26 lawyers from Arab Gulf states, Australia, Canada, the UK and the US issued a “Sanaa Call” demanding access to lawyers, physicians and families for the detainees.

The statement said some terror suspects were arrested in “unknown places,” and called the United States and the Arab Gulf states to “guarantee humanitarian treatment for the detainees.”

“The continuing arbitrary and illegal detention of thousands of people in Guantanamo Bay... represents a fundamental challenge to the rule of law and constitutes a betrayal of fundamental human rights principles,” it said.

The statement called on the United States and governments in the Gulf to grant detainees full access to lawyers, doctors, relatives and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Conferees also discussed a plan to set up an international committee, to include lawyers and activists, to “defend the rights of detainees at Guantanamo and elsewhere in the world in the framework... of the war on terrorism.”

The activists also called for an investigation into allegations of torture, and to put those responsible on trial.

The conference was co-sponsored by the international rights watchdog Amnesty International, and the Yemeni National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms, a non-governmental rights group.

Attended by families of Yemeni Guantanamo detainees, the gathering discussed arbitrary detention, the due process of law for counter-terror and security concerns, and difficulties facing lawyers in defending detained terror suspects.