By Luke Baker Thu Jun 9, 1:31 PM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military on Thursday rejected U.N. criticism of its detainee policies in, saying all prisoners had access to due legal process and their rights under the Geneva Conventions were being respected.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, in a report to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, said that in Iraq, "one of the major human rights challenges remains the detention of thousands of persons without due process."
"Despite the release of some detainees, their number continues to grow. Prolonged detention without access to lawyers and courts is prohibited under international law including during states of emergency," his report said.
But the military said such criticism was wrong, insisting Iraqi detainees were having their cases reviewed promptly either through referral to Iraq's central criminal court or by a joint U.S.-Iraqi prisoner review board.
About 10,000 people are currently in detention in Iraq, around 6,000 in U.S.-run prisons and the rest in Iraqi hands.
"Approximately 470 security detainees have been tried so far, with 315 convictions," Lieutenant Colonel Guy Rudisill, spokesman for detainee operations in Iraq, said in an email, referring to those sent to Iraq's central criminal court.
The remainder -- which is the vast majority -- are having their cases looked at by the Combined Review and Release Board (CRRB), a nine-member body consisting of three senior officers from the U.S.-led coalition and six Iraqi representatives from the ministries of justice, interior and human rights.
Rudisill said the CRRB met three to four times per week to review files, checking the case of each detainee within the first 90 days of detention and within 180 days after that, in accordance, he said, with the Geneva Conventions.
"The CRRB is a procedure that has been established to determine which detainees are eligible for release under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1546," he said.
"Since the board first convened in August 2004, 2,520 detainees have been approved for release, 4,527 for release with a guarantor, and 5,721 were recommended for continued internment," he said.
The guarantor program entails a community leader taking responsibility for the detainee, with each signing a form, the detainee's a renouncement of violence and the guarantor's a personal bond that the detainee will abide by the law.
NEW DETAINEES
While the U.S. military says more than 7,000 detainees have been released since the CRRB was set up, thousands more people have been detained over the same period.
In the past three weeks alone around Baghdad, the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division has rounded up more than 1,000 suspects, although many were quickly freed. Almost every day the military announces the seizure of dozens more people countrywide.
A Security Council resolution adopted a year ago ending the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq let the U.S. military keep taking and holding prisoners even after the June 2004 handover of power, in apparent contradiction of the Geneva conventions.
The Fourth Geneva Convention, while allowing occupying forces to detain individuals, has no provision for internment by outside forces after an occupation has ended.
The United States at the time of the handover held more than 8,000 "security and criminal detainees" in U.S.-controlled centers including the now-infamous Abu Ghraib detention center, where photographs of prisoners taken by U.S. soldiers documented a variety of human rights abuses.
Rudisill said that as part of efforts to speed up the process of reviewing prisoners' files, a second CRRB panel had been set up last month, a move he said should cut in half the time detainees wait for a board review.
UN flag

The United Nations Secretary-General has criticised United States handling of prisoners in Iraq, during a recent report to the UN Security Council. He said that the prisoners were denied due legal process and other rights guaranteed under international law. 

"One of the major human rights challenges remains the detention of thousands of persons without due process. Despite the release of some detainees, their number continues to grow. Prolonged detention without access to lawyers and courts is prohibited under international law including during states of emergency," the Secretary General's report said.

His argument is that since the US has declared that the occupation has ended and sovereignty has been handed to the Iraqi's, it has no legal right to detain prisoners. 
 
The US military has defended its actions, saying that it has not breached prisoners' rights under the Geneva Conventions, and is acting to process current detainees as quickly as possible.