Amnesty: Guantanamo Prisoners captured on cash reward

Amnesty International says a majority of U.S. prisoners in Guantanamo Bay were captured on a $5,000 reward.

The non-government organization said Friday that more than 85 detainees at the Cuba prison were captured by the Afghan Northern Alliance and in Pakistan when the cash rewards were offered for every unidentified terror suspect handed over to U.S. custody.

Amnesty said Pakistani courts have refused to offer protection for hundreds of the country’s citizens who were taken prisoner in mass arrests and “sold” to the United States as terrorists with only the word of the captors as proof. The prisoners were taken to Guantanamo Bay, Bagram Airbase and secret U.S.-run prisons around the world, the organization charged.

About 300 detainees have been released from Guantanamo Bay with no charges brought against them and many prisoners remain unaccounted for, Amnesty said, leaving them in danger of rendition and torture.

The organization said a conference will be Sept. 29-30 to discuss Pakistan’s “abuses” during the war on terror.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International