Over 60 children held at Guantanamo

The U.S. held at least 60 children as suspected terrorists, some younger than14 years old, in its notorious detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a human rights group said Sunday.

Lawyers in London suggest that most of the 60 young detainees who were held at the U.S. base in Cuba were boys under 18, including at least 10 still held at Gitmo prison who were 14 at the time they were captured, according to The Independent report.

"They include at least 10 detainees still held at the U.S. base in Cuba who were 14 or 15 when they were seized - including child soldiers who were held in solitary confinement, repeatedly interrogated and allegedly tortured," the rights group report added.

The disclosures, by the London-based legal rights group Reprieve, contradict repetitive lies by the Bush administration which claims that the U.S. is the world’s foremost protector of human rights and freedoms.

Numerous scandals involving the ill treatment of prisoners held in U.S.-run detention centers and prisons stirred worldwide resentment and anger over the U.S. foreign policies, specially since it embarked on the so-called war on terror, following September 11 attacks.

"We would take a very, very dim view if it transpires that there were actually minors there," a government official was quoted as saying in the report.

The U.S. government had constantly dismissed allegations that juveniles were being held at its detention camp.

The U.S. government accused Mohamed el Gharani, 12 year-old, of 1998 Al Qaeda plot in London, which was allegedly led by Al Qaeda leader in Europe.

Gharani, who was captured in Karachi in October 2001, spent several years in solitary confinement for allegedly being Al Qaeda member.

Also Canadian-born Omar Khadr, whom the U.S. claims is the son of an Al Qaeda commander, was arrested in 2002 when he was 15 and kept in solitary confinement, for allegedly killing a U.S. soldier with a grenade in July 2002.

"It would surely be really quite stupid to allow the world to think you have teenagers in orange jumpsuits and shackles, spending 23 hours a day locked up in a cage," a source said.

"If it's true that young people have been held there, their cases should be dealt with as a priority."

Clive Stafford Smith, a legal director of Reprieve and lawyer representing a number of detainees, accused the U.S. of breaking every legal convention on human rights by putting children in the same prison as adults - including U.S. law.

"There is nothing wrong with trying minors for crimes, if they have committed crimes. The problem is when you either hold minors without trial in shocking conditions, or try them before a military commission that, in the words of a prosecutor who refused to take part, is rigged," he said.

The teenagers, who had been held in Guantanamo jail for over four years, now have reached the age of 18, some are still in the prison, others had been released ever since their capture.

Agencies