Red Cross visits Iraqi prisoners of war

THE International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said yesterday it had begun visiting Iraqi prisoners of war held by US-led forces near the southern town of Umm Qasr.

No further details were immediately available and an ICRC spokesman said that there was no word yet on when the Swiss-based humanitarian group would get access to US or British prisoners held by Iraqi forces.

Under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which both sides have signed, the ICRC must be allowed to visit prisoners of war.

US and British forces say they have captured several thousand Iraqi soldiers during the 10 days of conflict.

Last week, Qatar-based al-Jazeera television broadcast images of what they said were captured British and American soldiers and airmen.

The Pentagon’s official war casualty list includes 17 Americans missing in action and seven prisoners of war.

Meanwhile, the US Central Command said yesterday that captured Iraqis are being treated as prisoners of war but said there would be accountability for any terrorist acts that would violate the rules of war.

Brigadier General Vincent Brooks cited several incidents in which loyalists of Saddam Hussein shot and killed Iraqi civilians while using them as human shields against US forces.

He said no decision had been made to designate any of the more than 4,000 Iraqi prisoners as unlawful combatants and send them to a prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where followers of Osama bin Laden were incarcerated after the Afghanistan war.

“Right now at this point, we are treating all that we have taken into our custody as prisoners of war,” Brig Gen Brooks said, noting the Bush administration would decide whether to treat them as terrorists.

Brig Gen Brooks said Iraqi paramilitary forces that acted as death squads and carried out “brutal acts” against civilians would be held accountable under the Geneva Conventions, which govern the actions of combatants.

Brig Gen Brooks was responding to reports in The Washington Post that US forces have begun rounding up Iraqis in civilian clothes who are suspected of involvement with paramilitary squads and may ship them to the US Navy base in Guantanamo.

The report said military lawyers were drafting criteria designed to guide front-line troops on how such Iraqis could be taken into custody. The detainees would be treated like POWs but without an official status until a hearing is held, which would determine whether they can be released, held as POWs or declared illegal combatants, the report said.

“There will be accountability for the violations of the Geneva Conventions,” Brig Gen Brooks said, adding he did not believe any US portrayal of the acts of Iraqi loyalists would affect the treatment of Americans held by Iraq. “We can’t account for what this regime will do with our POWs,” he said.