Swiss summon ambassadors over prisoner abuse claims

Switzerland has taken the unusual step of summoning both the US and British ambassadors to demand respect for international law in the treatment of prisoners in Iraq, a Foreign Ministry official said today.

Acting as the guardian of the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of warfare, Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey was quoted as saying she “felt abhorrence and rage” over the disclosures of prisoner abuse in Iraq.

“This behaviour toward detainees is unacceptable,” Calmy-Rey said in an interview with the weekly SonntagsBlick. “It violates international humanitarian law. I am very concerned. These are occurrences that we cannot keep silent about.”

Calmy-Rey was quoted as saying she expressed satisfaction to the ambassadors that investigations have been opened and that “these crimes will not go unpunished”.

Ministry spokeswoman Carine Carey said that US Ambassador Pamela Willeford and British Ambassador Simon Featherstone were summoned on Friday to the ministry in Bern.

“Switzerland wanted to give them both the same message, so it was the best way to act,” Carey said.

A spokesman for the US Embassy, Bruce Armstrong, said Willeford had been out of the country and that her deputy had attended the meeting.

“Friday, in the absence of the US ambassador, our deputy chief of mission went into the Foreign Ministry ... to discuss Iraq and the Geneva Conventions,” Armstrong said.

Carey couldn’t say when the foreign ministry expects to receive a response from both governments. The British embassy wasn’t available for comment today.

“As the depository state of the Geneva Conventions, we have a special moral duty to make sure that they are followed,” Calmy-Rey added.