Detention

Mr. Jardine's response to my previous letter regarding the detention of Taliban fighters (The Jakarta Post, Jan. 23, 2002) wrongly assumes that Guantanamo Bay inmates should be treated as prisoners of war.

If this were truly the case, Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners would be automatically protected under the Geneva Convention, meaning that interrogation would be limited to name, rank and serial number.

Mr. Jardine, however, seems to ignore the fact that there is a fight against international terrorism underway, and that al-Qaeda terrorist cells need to be identified and eradicated by whatever means available!

Prisoner interrogations outside the Geneva Convention may well be the best way to extract valuable information about the al- Qaeda network and prevent future terrorist attacks.

The United States' reluctance to confer Prisoner of War (POW) status on Taliban prisoners is perfectly understandable, given that most of these terrorist networks are still unidentified, and that the Afghanistan intervention was directed against an unrecognized regime, rather than a sovereign state.

Last but not least, recognizing Taliban prisoners as POW's would also require their repatriation to their respective countries of origin, where their ultimate fate may not be dictated by human rights considerations, or the benevolent attention of the Jardines of this world.

Mr. Jardine is perfectly entitled to his own opinions, but his emotional outbursts and portrayal of the British as "obedient servants" of the Americans is downright childish.

I do not wish to engage in any further polemic exchanges on the subject.

JOE L. SPARTZ

Jakarta