The detainees are being held indefinitely under the legally-nebulous term "enemy combatants".

GENEVA, January 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The International Committee of the Red Cross renewed calls to the United States to clarify the status of hundreds of people held without charge in the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

The call coincided with the anniversary of the first Red Cross visit to the detention camp, where the U.S. is stockpiling more than 600 people without trial, reported the BBC News Online Sunday, January 19.

The detainees are being held indefinitely under the legally-nebulous term "enemy combatants".

The ICRC stress they are prisoners of war and should be treated as individuals, subject to the protection of the Geneva Conventions.

Over the past 12 months, ICRC teams spent about 33 weeks in Guantanamo interviewing prisoners and checking basic issues such as food, hygiene facilities and access to exercise and fresh air.

Because the detainees are not allowed direct contact with their relatives, ICRC staffers have tried to facilitate the exchange of 3,300 personal messages between them and their families.

As Washington is even reluctant to release the names of any of those held, the censored letters are the only way families can confirm their relatives are being held at Guantanamo.

An ICRC spokesman said they had repeatedly told the Americans that each prisoner should be given access to an independent and impartial tribunal to determine his status.

''Is this how the USA defends human rights and the rule of law?" Amnesty

"What is important for us is that we think there should be a procedure put in place which answers that question for each individual internee who is at Guantanamo at the moment," the spokesman said.

"On the basis of this determination of the status, the U.S. can then see how they want to proceed in the case of each individual detainee."

The ICRC, which has just completed its fourth mission to Guantanamo Bay, says it will continue to carry out regular visits to the camp as long as people are imprisoned there.

Several world human rights watch-dogs, including Amnesty International, have appealed to Washington to either release the detainees or press charges against them.

On Friday, January 10, Amnesty pressed the U.S. to resolve the "legal limbo" of the hundreds of prisoners detained at Guantanamo, slamming Washington's continuing defiance of international law.

Amnesty accused the Bush administration of violating human rights afforded by the Geneva conventions by refusing to allow the prisoners access to lawyers, courts or relatives.

A year after the Pentagon first began transferring Al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects to the U.S. naval base on the south-east tip of Cuba, human rights campaigners and lawyers have accused the administration of creating an unprecedented legal black hole.

"No access to the courts, lawyers or relatives; the prospect of indefinite detention in small cells for up to 24 hours a day; the possibility of trials by executive military commissions with the power to hand down death sentences; and no right of appeal,'' an Amnesty statement said.

''Is this how the USA defends human rights and the rule of law? This legal limbo is a continuing violation of human rights standards which the international community must not ignore," said the statement.

Guantanamo detainees have "No access to the courts, lawyers or relatives"

Many governments and rights group including the United Nations have spoken out against the treatment of the Guantanamo detainees, who Bush has said are not prisoners of war and thus cannot benefit from rights entitled them under the Geneva Convention.

Amnesty renewed a reminder that the Geneva Convention required Washington to release to their home countries all those who were detained as combatants during armed conflict with a U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan.

The first prisoners were flown to Guantanamo Bay a year ago, blindfolded, handcuffed, their ankles shackled and wearing ear-muffs.

At the time, Rear-Admiral John Stufflebeem of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said of the men held in the temporary prison called Camp X-Ray: "They are bad guys. They are the worst of the worst and if let out on the street, they will go back to the proclivity of trying to kill Americans and others."

But after being interrogated by the CIA and FBI, none of the men have been charged with any crime. Three Afghan prisoners – including two elderly and frail men – were returned home after the U.S. decided they were "no longer a threat".

Campaigners complain that the fate of the prisoners does not appear to be an issue.

Thomas Wilner, a Washington-based lawyer who represents 12 Kuwaiti prisoners, said: "These are violations of basic human rights and something that Americans should care about. But the public responds with fear and deference to the government in times of crisis."

The British government, meanwhile, was also criticized for failing to protect the rights of the eight Britons among the prisoners.

British officials – including members of the security services – have made several visits to the eight Britons held at Guantanamo Bay. They said they are satisfied with the conditions in which the prisoners are being held.

On Friday, a U.K. Foreign Office spokesman said the government continued to "press the U.S. about the future of the Britons" and had urged it to come to a decision about their future.

U.K. Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, has made clear he believes the prisoners should be returned to Britain, though the decision on whether to charge them would be taken by the Crown Prosecution Service.

In November, three Court of Appeal judges described the detention of the Britons as "objectionable" but ruled that the Foreign Office could not be forced to do more.

Neil Durkin, a spokesman for Amnesty, said the Government was tacitly supporting the violation of human rights. "We don't think the U.K. Government has done enough," he said.