Red Cross visits Saddam Hussein

Two staff members of the international Red Cross have visited former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in US custody in Iraq, a spokeswoman said today.

The delegates, one of whom was a doctor, saw Saddam at an undisclosed location in Iraq today, said Nada Doumani, spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

“The aim of this visit is to track and monitor the conditions of detention and treatment of the detainee,” Doumani said, speaking from Amman, Jordan.

“We want to see whether he is getting enough food and water and also to check his health condition and to give him the possibility to write a message to his family, which he did.”

The ICRC is mandated to carry out visits to detainees under the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of warfare, but it never comments publicly on the conditions it finds.

Doumani said the ICRC would carry out a second visit to Saddam in due course, but she could not say when that would be.

“We will repeat our visits as long as the person is in detention,” she said.