GENEVA, Dec 30: The Red Cross has asked the US-led authority in Iraq for access to former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
Under the Geneva Conventions, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has the right to contact any prisoner of war or detained civilian, said ICRC spokesman Florian Westphal.
“We have been in contact with the Americans regularly concerning prisoners of war and other detainees in Iraq and in the course of this contact we have also talked about Saddam Hussein,” he said.
“Saddam Hussein, as somebody protected by the Geneva Conventions, has a right to ICRC visits,” he said.
The agency, which is the internationally-recognized guardian of the Geneva Conventions, has asked for access to the former president since his capture by US forces on Dec 13, Mr Westphal said. The ICRC was merely following its mandate with regards to seeking access to all detained people, he explained.
There was no fixed timeframe specifying when the ICRC could speak to Saddam Hussein.
“There are a number of different factors which can have an influence on each individual case. The general idea is that it should happen as soon as possible,” Mr Westphal said.
The ICRC is working under the assumption that Saddam Hussein is a prisoner of war and therefore protected by the third Geneva Convention, which details minimum standards of humane treatment, underlining the responsibility of the “detaining power” — in this case the United States.
It says that prisoners are only bound to give their name, rank, date of birth and equivalent information, and forbids physical or mental torture, or “any other form of coercion ... to secure from them any kind of information whatever”.
“Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted or exposed to any unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind”, the convention adds.
20 DETAINED: US soldiers have detained 20 suspected guerillas and discovered a large cache of concealed weapons north of Baghdad, the army said on Tuesday.
Spokeswoman Major Josslyn Aberle said 10 of those held on Monday morning in Shahad al Mab, west of Baqubah, had been wanted.
During the operation soldiers from the 1-68 Armoured Battalion of the US Fourth Infantry Division also found two rocket launchers, 23 blocks of TNT explosive and other weaponry, Major Aberle said at divisional headquarters in Tikrit.
She said soldiers conducting a routine search uncovered an even bigger weapons cache hidden behind a false wall in a shed southeast of Samarra on Monday afternoon.
“We put an arms dealer out of business,” Aberle said.
The arsenal contained “a significant amount” of C-4 explosive, dynamite, 43 rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers, 79 RPG grenades, 25 Kalashnikov rifles, an RPK machine-gun, six 60-millimetre mortar tubes, ammunition, 25 fragmentary grenades, 40 82-millimetre mortar fuses, used in the assembly of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and one assembled IED, Aberle said.
IEDs, also known as roadside bombs, are a favourite weapon of the guerillas targeting the US troops.
The Baqubah area, 60 kilometres north of Baghdad, and neighbouring Samarra to the northwest are centres of the attacks on US-led forces.
Seven US soldiers, including two killed by mortars, died in the region between last Wednesday and Friday. —AFP
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