American POWs in Iraq

Iraqi TV has broadcast pictures of at least four dead American soldiers and several prisoners. CNN is saying they dont want to broadcast those pictures because this a violation of the Geneva Convention. US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also said the Iraqi television footage was a violation of the Geneva Convention

My question, and what about the pictures of Iraqi POW? CNN broadcasted these, why make a diference between American and Iraqi POW?

Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War



Showing them on TV, even without an interview or even sound, is a violation of the Geneva Convention. So the Arab and Western News networks violated the convention regarding both Iraqi and US POW's.

Correct. Herr Rumsfeld is the last person who should give any lessons in the respect for international treaties. What the hell's up with those poor souls in Camp Xray then???

Nazism, that's what Rummie is applying. I'll quit the chit chat.

Those are not considered POWs because they were not registrated as regular soldiers. I wonder what the US will do with Iraqi civilian resistance? Will they be treated as POWs?

bookmark

I recall that the same thing when on in Gulf.1 with images of captured pilots being broadcast. I have also been seeing plenty of footage of surrendering Iraqi soldiers being 'processed', this should also count as 'public curiosity'.

CNN has changed their point of view on the pictures and will show them to the public.

The news aspect of troops surrendering to other troops is legitimate. So is the non-individual-specific showing of a group of POWs in an enclosure or marching in a column. Displaying and abusing bodies, interrogating, intimidating, and otherwise harming, exploiting or ridiculing POWS, or using their image or words to propagandize, is a violation of The Geneva Convention. The Red Cross has filed a protest. Iraqi POWs taken by US/UK forces are accorded treatment in keeping with The Geneva Convention. The Iraqis depicted in the film in question are by their recorded actions war criminals, and the production of the ta[pe itself, along with the actions taped, are warcrimes. Its not a "Fine Point".

A police officer may arrest a suspect. That police officer may not drag that suspect back to the stationhouse at the end of a chain hooked to the bumper of the squad car, there to display the prisoner's corpse to the slavering mob.

timberlandko
I dont know what footage you saw but i've seen some americans asked where they come from, their rank and what they were doing in Irak. I saw no chains, no abusing or no harming.

Neither did I. These poor souls are scared shitless, Bush has no right sending these guys there to please his oil cronies.

However, I saw a picture of two GI's holding an Iraqi soldier, putting a gun on his head, and spraying water into his mouth. Imagine the iraqi's doing that, it would be a scandal.

A POW may be asked only name, rank, and service number. The question "Did you come here to kill Iraqis", as was asked, is a violation.

Two pertinent articles are 13 and 14:
Article 13

Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated. Any unlawful act or omission by the Detaining Power causing death or seriously endangering the health of a prisoner of war in its custody is prohibited, and will be regarded as a serious breach of the present Convention. In particular, no prisoner of war may be subjected to physical mutilation or to medical or scientific experiments of any kind which are not justified by the medical, dental or hospital treatment of the prisoner concerned and carried out in his interest.

Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity.

Measures of reprisal against prisoners of war are prohibited.

Article 14

Prisoners of war are entitled in all circumstances to respect for their persons and their honour. Women shall be treated with all the regard due to their sex and shall in all cases benefit by treatment as favourable as that granted to men. Prisoners of war shall retain the full civil capacity which they enjoyed at the time of their capture. The Detaining Power may not restrict the exercise, either within or without its own territory, of the rights such capacity confers except in so far as the captivity requires.

The entire Covention pertaining to POWs is many pages. Those interested may find it at:

http://193.194.138.190/html/menu3/b/91.htm

Remember, The Iraqi see the US army as an imperialistic army trying to conquest Iraq. I wonder how Americans would treat foreign soldiers bombing their cities and killing their loved ones.

frolic, your sentiment is admirable. The factual basis for your objection is lacking, to my mind. We are at war with The Iraqi Regime, not with The Iraqi People. Yes, there have been and will be civilian casualties. However, the utmost care is being taken to limit such, and to limit other collateral damage. Residential and shopping districts are not being bombed. Regime-Specific targets, legitimate under any rule of war, and specific military assets, again legitimate targets, are being targeted and destroyed. Where are the panic-stricken hordes of refugees fleeing shattered, burning cities? In fact, where are the shattered, burning cities? Dropping a government building while leaving the lights on and the windows unbroken in the civilian building next door is not indiscriminate destruction. If indiscriminate destruction was an American goal, it could be accomplished at much less cost in time and materiel than is being employed.

Arguments and objections based on emotion and opinion carry far less less weight than arguments based on facts and observed phenomena, regardless the intention or other foundation of said arguments. Hysteria is not history.

timber, good points.

Maybe good points but that is not what the Iraqi feel. Maybe the West is convinced this is a war against The Iraqi Regime. The Iraqi People see this as a war of a foreign country that has nothing to do with Iraq. Bagdad is preparing for the worst. Thousands of volunteers are signing in to defend the city. They are ready to defend that city 'till the last man.

A POW cannot be a means of propaganda, as a moral. The way of treatment of POWs shows the morality. If one receive some kind of treatment of POW as a propaganda, the one is subdued to the morality.

A funny fact. Bush said that the people mistreating the POW's will be trialed as war criminals? Trialed before the The International Court of Justice? The same court the US does not want to recognise. Or do they want to stage some trials on their own? I bet Judge Judy will be the Judge.

frolic..
You are making a logical mistake. Warning: This is not a joke.

Mysterious
Can you be a bit more to the point. What is the logical mistake?
If you mean "the Judge Judy joke". That is just to express my feelings. Isn't it a sad joke of the president threatening other soldiers with trials as war criminal while he has done every effort to get his own soldiers off the hook.

Mistreatment of POWs by Iraq is obvious without any recourse to the "authority" or evident under the natural law. This is bad for Iraq regime.