Guantanamo Bay prisoners

Madam, - The juxtaposition of Richard Coffey's letter of October 11th on the prisoners of Guantanamo Bay and An Irishman's Diary…

Madam, - The juxtaposition of Richard Coffey's letter of October 11th on the prisoners of Guantanamo Bay and An Irishman's Diary was interesting.

We seek out tales of people such as George Duckwitz, "one of the heroic Germans who opposed the Nazis", to reassure us about man's humanity in a time of terror and oppression. Yet we accept the lack of human rights accorded to the prisoners of Guantanamo Bay by a country which lauds freedom, claims to abhor oppression and is proud to be fighting it.

Letters to the American Embassy here concerning the camp are not even acknowledged. But if enough people could overcome "indifference, cowardice or bias against people of a different religion" to query US policy, the US government might be shamed into granting these prisoners POW status or a fair and open trial. - Yours, etc.,

MARGRIT CRUICKSHANK, Auburn Road, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.