Red Cross expects to visit Saddam
GENEVA (Reuters) – The International Committee of the Red
Cross said Monday that Saddam Hussein should be treated like
any other prisoner of war and that it expected to be able to
visit him.
“The (Red Cross) should have access to all persons
protected by the Geneva conventions, including prisoners of
war,” the Swiss-based agency said in a brief statement.
U.S.-led troops who toppled Saddam, 66, in April captured
him Saturday in a hole near his hometown of Tikrit.
The U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt.-Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, said
he was being accorded all the rights of a prisoner of war.
“We are going to treat him humanely, we are going to treat
him according to the Geneva Conventions,” he told CNN.
The conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war say
the Red Cross must be given access to them, but do not say how
soon after their capture this must happen.
The Red Cross declined to comment on whether television
pictures showing a bearded and dirty Saddam shortly after his
capture amounted to a violation of the conventions, which
prohibit the exposing of prisoners to “public curiosity.”
“We do not wish to enter into a public debate on this,” the
Red Cross said, adding that if it had any misgivings these
would be expressed directly to Washington.
The third Geneva convention states that prisoners of war
can be moved from one country to another, so the United States
would not be breaching the conventions by moving Saddam out of
Iraq.

NOW Iraqis can sleep well.