The U.S. political decision to film the bodies did not respect the dignity of the dead, said Amnesty spokesman

By Hadi Yahmid, IOL France Correspondent

PARIS, July 26 (IslamOnline.net) – The international human rights watchdog Amnesty International criticized Saturday, July 26, the United States for allowing reporters to film the bodies reported to be of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's two sons, Qusay and Uday, saying it was in contravention of "the spirit" of Geneva Conventions on prisoners.

"(The fourth) Geneva Convention does not explicitly rule against displaying photos of the war casualties, but its spirit provides mainly for respecting the bodies of the dead and refrain from using them for propaganda purposes," Kamal al-Samari, Amnesty official spokesman told IslamOnline.net.

He said the U.S. move of displaying the bodies of the two brothers on TV screens "constitutes a political decision that pays no respect to the dignity of the dead and implicitly contravenes the Geneva Conventions."

"What happened was a political decision that ran counter to human rights and man’s right not to be mutilated after death," asserted the spokesman.

The U.S. military allowed reporters to film the bodies Friday, July 25, raising a world-wide controversy over taking the grisly pictures of the bullet-riddled mutilated bodies to the air.

The faces of the bodies were waxy after undergoing cosmetic facial reconstruction in an effort to make them resemble the two brothers.

The move was harshly criticized by law experts, human rights advocates and media specialists Friday.

Some commentators lambasted the United States over the photos and then the filming of the dead bodies, especially that Washington had protested when Arab television broadcast pictures of U.S. soldiers killed by Iraqis forces during the invasion.

After the Arab channel Al-Jazeera aired a video tape of the bodies wearing bloodstained camouflage uniforms and some appeared to have bullet wounds to the head, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the move was a violation of the Geneva conventions.

This time Rumsfeld, who ordered the filming, argued it was important to convince skeptic Iraqis that Sadam’s sons were dead.

The U.S. confirmed Tuesday, July 22, that Qusay and Uday had been killed in an attack on a house at al-Falah district in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

Accountability

On the U.S. military operation to liquidate Qusay and Uday, Amnesty spokesman pressed for treating captured Iraqi officials in accordance with the relevant international conventions, asserting that the convicts should put on a fair trial.

"Therefore, Amnesty is against treating former Iraqi officials accused of human rights violations in a way other than this," he said.

Samari further said the London-based human rights watchdog supports the relatives of Iraqis victimized by the former Iraqi regime to know the fate of their loved ones.

"Those accused of human rights violations should stand fair trial, and Amnesty is calling for reforming the Iraqi judiciary and has a number of proposals in this respect," he added.

On the U.S. and British violations of human rights in Iraq, Samari said Amnesty submitted recently a 25-page report to the U.S.-led occupation administration in Iraq on "excessive use of force, shooting demonstrators, maltreating prisoners and civilians by American soldiers."

He said an Amnesty delegation is currently visiting Iraq and engaged in talks with Shiites leaders in the northern Iraqi city of An-Najaf.

The human rights organization stands ready to cooperate with the leaders of the religious communities in Iraq to maintain equality between all Iraqis, added Samari.

He further said Amnesty contacted members of the new Governing Council and the occupation authorities, noting that the organization placed the interests of Iraqis high on the agenda.

The 25-member U.S.-handpicked council of prominent Iraqis from diverse political and religious backgrounds was named at an inaugural meeting Sunday, July 13.