- Jarring television images of United States soldiers being
paraded before their Iraqi captors has sparked a new debate about the ability
of international conventions forged in the aftermath of previous wars to
keep pace with modern developments.
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- While leaders of the coalition forces criticised the
Iraqi regime for its handling of POWs, legal experts claimed both sides
had breached UN codes governing the treatment of captured soldiers.
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- Iraqi forces displayed five shaken US soldiers - apparently
captured in a battle near the southern city of Nassiriya - and some bloodied
bodies, in what US officials called a violation of the Geneva Convention.
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- Iraqi television filmed the bodies and prisoners, saying
they fell into Iraqi hands during a battle at the town of Souq al-Shuyukh,
south-east of Nassiriya, where US forces have encountered stiff resistance.
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- Associate Professor Don Rothwell, of the University of
Sydney, said the publication of photographs of Iraqi POWs in Australian
media could also be a breach of the Geneva Convention.
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- The rights of POWs are set out in the third Geneva Convention,
but it is Article 13 of the document that has come under scrutiny in recent
days. That article says: "Prisoners of war must at all times be protected,
particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults
and public curiosity."
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- The keeper of the convention is the International Committee
of the Red Cross.
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- The legal adviser to the ICRC for the Pacific region,
Helen Durham, said yesterday that the "basic element of that convention,
if you boil it all down, is [POWs] should be treated humanely".
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- "They're not criminals, and they're not being held
as a punishment, but they're individuals who've been engaged in fighting,
and the aim is to keep them out of direct participation in hostilities."
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- She said the obligation to protect POWs from public curiosity
was a "broad obligation" and one that was increasingly difficult
to keep, "particularly with the increasing - I call it the 'CNN factor'
- it's very hard to keep journalists away from this".
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- "I think in the long run one of the things this
conflict may show is for the need for increased training of media in the
laws of war, because each of the rules - whether it be about public curiosity
or violence against POWs - have reasons behind them to ensure people are
protected."
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- Dr Durham said the ICRC was loath to publicly condemn
any warring party for convention breaches because doing so would jeopardise
its ability to get access to POWs of both sides.
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- President George Bush's comments that members of the
Iraqi military would be punished for war crimes if they mistreated prisoners
also drew warnings from legal experts of how important it was for countries
such as the US to be seen to be upholding the conventions themselves, to
ensure their own armed forces were protected.
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- The Bush Administration came under fire over its reluctance
to give POW status to Taliban fighters taken prisoner during the war in
Afghanistan.
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- Professor Rothwell said yesterday that the situation
the US now found itself in - with its own POWs under Iraqi control - showed
why "there's a great, great danger in failing to respect the convention
because it can eventually rebound upon you to the detriment of your nationals".
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- Geneva Convention on treatment of POWs
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- Adopted on August 12, 1949, at a conference in Geneva
on protecting war victims, it came into force on October 21, 1950.
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- Article 13 states: "Prisoners of war must at all
times be humanely treated ... Prisoners of war must at all times be protected,
particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults
and public curiosity."
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- Article 14 states: "Prisoners of war are entitled
in all circumstances to respect for the persons and their honour."
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- http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/24/1048354544299.html
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