Straw warns US over treatment of Britons in Cuba

At least four more Britons are to be sent to the US military prison on Cuba to join three other British citizens accused of fighting with the Taliban and the al-Qa'ida network in Afghanistan.

The new suspects are due to arrive at the naval base in Guantanamo Bay in shackles, manacles and hoods in the next few days.

The Britons are among several dozen men accused of fighting for Osama bin Laden's terror organisation who are being interrogated by the Americans at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay.

Officers from the intelligence agencies MI5 and MI6 have already questioned the British prisoners in Afghanistan about their links with the UK, and their recruitment and training.

Human rights groups have voiced concerns that the conditions in the Cuban camp are inhumane, with prisoners being locked in outdoor cages. Amnesty International has called their treatment "cruel, degrading and inhumane".

The American authorities had already passed on the names of three prisoners being held in Cuba who claim to be British. British diplomats based in Washington are being sent to Cuba to interview the Britons to obtain information about their family backgrounds. A spokesman for the Foreign Office said yesterday that this process could take several weeks and refused to disclose any names until the next of kin had been informed.

Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, said: "These people ... are accused of having been members of the most dangerous terrorist organisation which the world has ever seen. That does not mean for a second that they do not have rights, and where they are British citizens it is our responsibility to ensure that they receive those rights.

"Whether or not technically they have rights under the Geneva Convention, they have rights in customary international law, and all of us who are either involved as their representatives as their governments or those holding them have obligations."

Mr Straw said he had told Colin Powell, the American Secretary of State, in a telephone conversation on Saturday that Britain would complain to the US if the conditions the prisoners were being kept in were unsatisfactory.

The Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Michael Moore said: "The British Government must persuade the United States to uphold international law. There is little point in gaining the high moral ground during the conflict only to give it up as we move towards peace."

Senior Labour MPs urged the Government to take a tougher stand. Doug Henderson, a former armed forces minister, said: "If we're representing civilised society, we've got to uphold the norms, rules and legal obligations of civilised society."

Ian Acheson, executive director of Prisoners Abroad, said: "The Geneva Convention is in place to protect prisoners of war against inhuman treatment, yet in this case, the uncertain status of these Britons provides no means to verify international standards of treatment."

The first British prisoner was sent to Cuba from Afghanistan on Friday, with 19 other men captured by the anti- Taliban forces. Two more British men were among 30 who were transported to the base yesterday.

Only a small number of men claiming to be British citizens have been captured in Afghanistan.

Both Britain and America are keen to avoid the sort of frenzied publicity that surrounded the identification of the young American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh. It is believed that Mr Lindh is still being held on a US warship in the Indian Ocean, where he is being interrogated. There has been a huge debate in America over what should happen to him.

The International Committee of the Red Cross is to be given access to the prisoners in the Cuban camp later this week.

America has rejected reports that all the prisoners were sedated as a security precaution before being placed on the transport planes that brought them from Afghanistan. A spokeswoman said the only prisoners who had been sedated were those who were suffering from injuries causing them pain.

One prisoner required an operation on a month-old gunshot injury. Naval doctors at the base operated to open and drain the wound. A statement released by officials at the base said the procedure took about two hours and "the detainee remained under tight security throughout". It added: "The detainee was alert and stable at the time of surgery, and doctors explained the nature of the procedure to the detainee before performing surgery. The incision and drainage took approximately two hours for two Navy orthopaedic surgeons to complete."