Prisoners treated ‘according to Islam’

PRISONERS OF WAR will be treated in accordance with “the teachings of Islam”, Iraq’s Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said yesterday.

Mr Sabri, who is in Egypt on a diplomatic trip aimed at rallying Arab governments against the US and British policies of “colonialism, neo-colonialism and war”, said it would take precedence over the rules laid down in the Geneva Convention.

“First of all, we are committed to the teachings of Islam. We are faithful Muslims. We take care of our prisoners of war in accordance with our teachings of Islam,” he told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One. “We are committed first of all to the teachings of Islam and second we are committed to the conventions of Geneva in dealing with the prisoners of war.

“We are the people who created law. When the grandfathers of Mr Blair and Mr Bush were living like animals in the caves, Iraqis created the law and were dealing with physics, arithmetic, literature and music.”

Mr Sabri left Baghdad under heavy bombardment to make the trip, via Syria, to Cairo where the 22-nation Arab League is meeting to try and reach consensus over the war.

He made the statement amid US outrage that five captured US soldiers have been paraded on Iraqi television in a broadcast that included lingering footage of four US corpses.

Mr Sabri would not comment on military tactics except to claim that the latest situation was “excellent”.

Iraq has divided the Arab nations into those who are supporting Iraq, those who are secretly supporting Iraq and traitors.

Mr Sabri claimed that any Arab nation that opposed Iraq was in the pay of the British, the US and Israel.

He told The World At One: “These are not governments. All of the people over the whole world are against the aggression. This aggression is isolated.”