News-Info-Alerts

Re: ICRC Still Seeks Access to US POWs

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: April 11, 2003

"Injured Iraqis At Hospital -ICRC Still Seeking Access to American POWs

GENEVA (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Friday it was still seeking access to American prisoners of war captured by Iraq, but said that contacts had been interrupted since the regime had fallen.

In a statement, the Swiss-based agency said that it was "deeply concerned" that it had not been allowed to visit coalition prisoners of war (POWs) held by Iraqi forces.

It strongly urged "those who are holding them today to afford them protection and treat them in full observance" of the Third Geneva Convention.

The 1949 treaty aims to protect captured troops and entitles them to visits by ICRC officials who interview them in private, check on their conditions of detention and allow them exchange send messages with their families. POWs must be treated humanely.

ICRC officials have visited 3,800 Iraqis held by U.S. and British forces, officials said.

The United States said Friday that 11 U.S. soldiers were missing and seven held as prisoners of war. On Thursday it said that concern was increasing over the fate of the seven -- five members of a U.S. supply convoy and two military fliers.

"Our delegation had made a lot of interventions in this respect. The Iraqi authorities had said at an early stage that they would apply the Third Geneva Convention and they would give us access," ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger told a news briefing. "But unfortunately we have not got access so I can't tell you what the conditions are."