The detainees in Guantanamo are in a dangerous position. Their legal rights are questionable. Prisoners of war? Enemy combatants? Innocent victims? Each of these is a view that can be argued. Each has a different entitlement attached to it.

Their captivity can be justified. There are people out there who want to kill. It doesn't matter to them who the victims are, so long as it furthers their idealistic creed of imposition of fundamental Islam. The captives at Guantanamo fall into this category.

At least, that is what we are invited to believe. Without due process, we will never know.

It is likely that the persons held captive there are enemy combatants at the very least. The question must therefore be asked why should they be given any rights at all?

History has shown that lasting peace results from compromise, and not force. The United Kingdom is at last, and for the first time in it's history, entering a period of peace where four nations live comfortably and peacefully alongside each other. The same can be said of Europe as a whole. This has been achieved largely through compromise and a respect for the values and traditions of others.

The rights of the detainees need to be upheld to demonstrate to those who would destroy us that there is a rule of law and justice which is equally valid to captive terrorists as it is to American and British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It can only be hoped that this is achieved, and that through doing so we can prove to the moderate muslims that equality exists regardless of race, or religion. This can reduce the number of young men and women who can be converted to more radical forms of belief, and prove to the world that the propaganda of Al-Qaeda is a lie.

As things stand, anything can happen to the detainees. Things have improved, and there is some semblance of justice now. I only hope that their rights can be held as precious as that of our own. When that happens the moral fight has been won, and the terrorists will be defeated.

Learn more about this author, Huw Freeman.
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