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New Afghan leader dismisses POW claims

Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai says he's absolutely clear that the detainees at the US naval base in Cuba are NOT prisoners of war.

There's been intense controversy over the status of the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, with the US describing them as illegal combatants, excluding them from protection under the Geneva Conventions.

Mr Karzai.. who will be President George W. Bush's special guest at the annual State of the Union address today .. told a Washington media conference he supports the US point of view on the detainees.

They are not prisoners of war. I see it in very clear terms, gentlemen and ladies, they are criminals. They brutalised Afghanistan, they killed our people, they destroyed our land. There was no war there, it was plain killing fields.

30/01/2002 12:51:16 PM | ABC Radio Australia News

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