sentences:  The most important difference between a CSRT Tribunal and an AR 190-8 Tribunal lay in their respective mandates.The AR-190-8 Tribunals were intended to comply with the United States responsibilities, as a signatory to the Geneva Conventions, to establish a "competent tribunal" for any captive around whom there is doubt as to their combatant status.The Geneva Conventions state that all captives have to be accorded all the protections of Prisoner of War status, until a competent tribunal sat, and determined that the captive was not a "lawful combatant".