Let Them Be P.O.W.'s
…Michael Durant was shot down in the "Black Hawk Down" incident in Somalia and seized by gunmen. The Somalis accused him of terrorism and initially threatened to put him on trial.

That conflict was a muddy one, not involving a declared war against a government. It was, in short, the kind of situation that the Bush administration seems to think is not covered by the Geneva Convention on treatment of prisoners of war.

Fortunately, the Somali gunmen were scrupulous about international law. They affirmed that Mr. Durant was a "prisoner of war" under the Geneva Convention and allowed a visit by the Red Cross.

The Bush administration owes it to the world — and to our own national interest — to rise to the level of Somali gunfighters and apply the Geneva Convention to the men at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/29/opinion/29KRIS.html