Treatment of POWs: Human Rights Watch said in New York yesterday that parading prisoners-of-war (POWs) violates the Geneva Conventions and both the Iraqi and US governments should not deliberately expose them to the media.
Human Rights Watch criticised US Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld for not responding to concerns that the US may be violating the Geneva Conventions on POWs, in particular the failure to properly determine the legal status of people captured during the war in Afghanistan and the use of "stress and duress" techniques that might amount to torture under international law.
"American POWs in Iraqi custody need all the help they can get to secure their Geneva Convention rights," said Mr Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "It's unfortunate that the United States hasn't been a more staunch defender of the Geneva Conventions in its own recent conduct." According to the Third Geneva Convention of 1949, a detaining authority in war time has a clear obligation not to parade POWs, or allow them to be exposed to the public, said the group.
The prohibition is not a blanket ban on any image whatsoever of a POW; for example, it would not extend to incidental filming of POWs, when journalists are documenting broader military operations. However, a detaining authority in war time has a clear obligation not to parade POWs, or allow them to be exposed to the public.
It said the Iraqi government has filmed American POWs and interrogated them before cameras and the US government has taken insufficient measures to prevent journalists filming Iraqi POWs held by the US.