A U.S. soldier holds an Iraqi civilian as prisoner and treats him harshly

BAGHDAD, March 24 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – As Iraqi television broadcast Sunday, March 23, images of several dead bodies of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, along with five others captured, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed Sahaf said Monday, March 24, that Iraq is fully committed to observing the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War (POWs).

Speaking at a press conference aired by Al-Jazeera satellite channel, Sahaf said “war criminal (President George W.) Bush shed crocodile tears on the Geneva Convention and his hands are stained with the blood of the innocent Afghani and Vietnamese women and children.”

Sahaf further said the “Jews are backing those villains (the U.S.-led occupation forces) and are systematically killing children and babies in Palestine.”

He said it is Bush who must abide by the Geneva Convention since Iraq has always respected POWs and treated them kindly in accordance with Islam.

He also asserted that the “villains kept on airing images of Iraqi civilians and not soldiers, as they claim, with guns pointed at their heads and then this war criminal Bush tells us treat POWs humanely.”

“This is not only a double-standard policy but also deception,” he added.

Sahaf, however, said Iraq might air images of the two pilots captured by the Iraqi troops Sunday.

“I personally do not know whether to consider those villains (U.S. and U.K. prisoners) war criminals or mercenaries,” he added.

Iraqi Defense Minister Sultan Hashem Ahmad, for his part, said Sunday that Iraq would respect the Geneva Conventions in its treatment of U.S. and British prisoners of war.

"We have values and principles. We are committed to the Geneva Conventions. Our values, our religion and our manners make us treat prisoners of war the way they deserve to be treated,” he said.

POWs In Islam

The images of the five U.S. soldiers held prisoner by the Iraqi army

In Islam, it is crystal clear that POWs, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, should be accorded with good treatment.

Islam advocates clemency with POWs. History has never known warriors so merciful to their captives as the early Muslims who followed the teachings of their religion. Numerous religious texts demand clemency with POWs.

Meanwhile, Arab human rights observers, for their part, lashed out at the heinous treatment of the Iraqi prisoners at the hands of the U.S.-led occupation forces as it appeared on TV screens and news agencies. 

Amnesty Urges Iraq To Respect POWs

From its part, Amnesty International Sunday appealed to Iraqi authorities to follow the Geneva Conventions in their treatment of U.S. prisoners of war, and urged all media to ensure that the dignity of POWs is respected in the use of television images.

"Amnesty International calls on the Iraqi authorities to treat United States prisoners of war in full conformity with the Third Geneva Convention, following the broadcast today on Iraqi television of captured U.S. soldiers," AFP quoted the London-based rights group as saying in a statement.

"They should not be subjected to any form of torture or ill-treatment and should be given immediate access to the International Committee of the Red Cross," it added.

“Amnesty calls on all media to ensure in its use of images that the dignity of all prisoners of war, whether Iraqi or U.S. or other, is respected,” the organisation said.

It noted that under Article 14 of the Convention, prisoners of war "are entitled in all circumstances to respect for their persons and their honour," while Article 13 says they "must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity".

Under Article 129, "Each party to the Convention has an obligation to search for those suspected of having committed such breaches and bring them to justice before its own courts or hand them over for trial to another party," Amnesty noted.

Last January, Amnesty International called on the United States to resolve the "legal limbo" of hundreds of prisoners detained at its Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, base, slamming Washington's continuing defiance of international law.

Amnesty accused the Bush administration of violating human rights afforded by the Geneva conventions by refusing to allow 600 prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay access to lawyers, courts or relatives.

In December, 2002,the U.S. Human Rights Watch also said it was “deeply concerned” by accusations made in The Washington Post that detainees had been subjected to torture or other forms of mistreatment while in the U.S. custody.

ICRC Condemns Airing Of POWs Pictures 

Amnesty l called on the U.S. to resolve the legal limbo of hundreds of prisoners detained at its Guantanamo Bay

For its part, the International committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) condemned the airing of pictures of prisoners of war in the conflict in Iraq constitutes a violation of the Geneva Conventions, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Sunday.

"It's very clear that prisoners of war shouldn't be subject to public exposure," ICRC spokeswoman Nada Doumani told AFP.

"We've seen these ones, we've seen the other ones, they shouldn't be subject to public exposure, it's quite clear," Doumani said on Sunday.

"It's in contradiction with the Geneva Conventions, it's a violation," she added.

Doumani also insisted that the responsibility for protecting prisoners under their control from undue exposure lay with the countries detaining them.

"The responsibility for the Geneva Convention is a state's responsibility; it's not a journalist's responsibility. Concerning the journalists it's a question of ethics," she added.

The U.S., Britain, and Iraq have all signed the Conventions, which date back to 1949.

ICRC headquarters in Geneva had no news of U.S., British or Iraqi prisoners of war held by both sides, and had not been formally notified by coalition forces of Iraqi prisoners that they were reportedly holding, according to Doumani.

"For the moment we have not received any notification, either from the British, the Americans or the Iraqis," she said.

"The authorities know that according to the Conventions they must notify the ICRC, so that it can register and visit the prisoners," Doumani added.

Bush warns Iraqis on U.S. POWs

Bush warned later on Sunday that Iraqis should treat U.S. prisoners humanely or be punished as war criminals, and braced Americans for the "tough fight" that lies ahead.

Speaking from the White House on returning from a weekend at the Camp David retreat, Bush said he had been briefed on the possible capture of U.S. soldiers but did not have all the details, AFP reported.

"I know that Saddam Hussein is losing control of his country, that we're slowly, but surely, achieving our objective," he said. "This is just the beginning of a tough fight."

"We expect them to be treated humanely, just like we'll treat any prisoners of theirs that we capture humanely," he said. "If not, the people who mistreat the prisoners will be treated as war criminals."

“Any time one of our soldiers loses a life, I grieve with their parents and their loved ones. And if there is somebody captured, and it looks like there may be, I expect those people to be treated humanely," he underlined.

Asked whether there was any chance of getting the captured soldiers back, Bush replied: "Of course."

Going Well

Bush said that the U.S.-led military campaign “was going” well enough in southern Iraq to allow for humanitarian aid shipments within the next 36 hours.

"We have an obligation -- and this is just not America, it's coalition forces -- have an obligation to put food and medicine in places so the Iraqi people can live a normal life and have hope," he said.

For his part, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that for Iraq to allow the filming of purported U.S. prisoners of war would constitute a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

On Saturday, March 22, U.S.-led forces invading Iraq have taken 1,000-2,000 Iraqi prisoners of war in the opening days of their invasion of Iraq.

Gen. Tommy Franks, the head of the U.S. Central Command, said his troops had about 1,000 to 2,000 prisoners of war in custody. But he added: "We have knowledge of thousands of others who have laid down their arms and gone home."

Blair Condemns Iraqi Pictures

British Prime Minister Tony Blair also condemned the broadcasting of the prisoners’ images, noting that it violated of the Geneva Convention and reinforced the need to remove Saddam Hussein and his regime.

"Parading people in that way is contrary to the Geneva Convention, contrary to all the proper rules of conflict," Blair said in an interview with the British Forces Broadcasting Service.

"Clearly the pictures of these prisoners are a flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention and we would urge our broadcasters and media not to allow themselves to be exploited by the Iraqis," Blair's spokesman had said earlier.

Paying tribute to the "professionalism, skill, and courage" of the British military, the prime minister said the campaign to remove Saddam was on track despite two helicopter crashes and the accidental shooting down of an RAF Tornado jet by a U.S. Patriot missile.

"These things are never easy. There will be some difficult times ahead but (the war) is going to plan despite the tragedies that there were," he said.

“Once again we have to thank and take pride in the professionalism, skill and courage of our armed forces that are helping make this country and our world more secure and also liberating the Iraqi people from one of the most brutal dictatorships of modern times,” he said.

The Downing Street spokesman urged broadcasters and the media "not to allow themselves to be exploited by the Iraqis."

"We will also be contacting Al-Jazeera and other Arab media to make the same point," the spokesman said.

"Coalition forces are making every effort to treat Iraqi prisoners of war with dignity and humanity and we would expect the Iraqis to do the same," he said.