Re: Saddam's POW Status Acceptable: ICRC

Date: January 09, 2004

"Saddam's POW status is legally acceptable: ICRC

A Pentagon decision to grant former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein prisoner of war (POW) status is legally acceptable, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Saturday.

"The prisoner of war status granted to Saddam Hussein is judicially acceptable because he was head of the Iraqi armed forces," Nada Dumani, ICRC spokesman in Iraq, told AFP from Amman.

Ms Dumani said it was now essential for the US-led coalition occupying Iraq to ensure that Saddam is granted rights enshrined in the Geneva Convention on war prisoners and is accorded fair treatment.

She referred specifically to article 18 which states that a prisoner of war that refuses to answer questions can neither be threatened, insulted, nor subjected to harsh treatment or physical and mental torture.

The Pentagon on Saturady declared Saddam a prisoner of war nearly a month after his capture and an Iraqi Governing Council member said the jailed former dictator could stand trial in Iraq by June.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was informed on Friday that Pentagon lawyers concluded that Saddam met the definition of an enemy prisoner of war under the Geneva Convention, Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita said.

Kurdish Governing Council member Dara Nuraddin told AFP Saddam could be tried in six months time before an Iraqi war crimes tribunal, but he expressed irritation that the Pentagon did not consult Iraqis about his legal status.

--AFP
© 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation"