Red
Cross Ultimatum
To US On Saddam
By Jonathan Steele
14 June, 2004
The Guardian
Saddam
Hussein must either be released from custody by June 30 or charged if
the US and the new Iraqi government are to conform to international
law, the International Committee of the Red Cross said last night.
Nada Doumani, a spokeswoman for the ICRC, told the Guardian: "The
United States defines Saddam Hussein as a prisoner of war. At the end
of an occupation PoWs have to be released provided they have no penal
charges against them."
Her comments came
as the international body, the only independent group with access to
detainees in US custody, becomes increasingly concerned over the legal
limbo in which thousands of people are being held in the run-up to the
transfer of power at the end of the month.
The occupation officially
ends on June 30 and US forces will be in Iraq at the invitation of its
sovereign government.
"There are
all these people kept in a legal vacuum. No one should be left not knowing
their legal status. Their judicial rights must be assured," Ms
Doumani said.
Saddam and other
senior officials of the old regime are the only Iraqi detainees to have
been given PoW status. Hundreds of other Iraqis have been seized since
the war often, according to critics, on flimsy suspicion and held for
long periods without charge, usually without their families knowing
for weeks where they are.
The ICRC visited
the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in early June and found 3,291 detainees,
including three women and 22 boys under 18. This was less than half
the 6,527 it found in March.
President George
Bush has promised to close the prison where US guards indulged in pornographic
abuse of prisoners and several groups of releases have taken place since.
But many prisoners have been transferred to other prisons.
The ICRC is angry
that it has not been given exact figures for releases or the whereabouts
of those who are moved from Abu Ghraib and it is hoping the end of the
occupation will put pressure on the authorities to clean up their act.
"If we consider the occupation ends on June 30, that would mean
it's the end of the international armed conflict. This is the legal
situation.
"When the conflict
ends the prisoners of war should be released according to the Geneva
conventions," Ms Doumani said.
She accepted that
US and other foreign forces would remain in Iraq.
Whether that meant
an occupation continued would be "determined by the situation on
the ground". The presence of foreign forces ought to be governed
by a legal agreement with the host government.
The ICRC has made
at least two visits to the former Iraqi president who is believed to
be in a special prison at Baghdad airport.
Around 40 other
members of the so-called "pack of cards", Washington's list
of high-level members of the former regime, are also there, most in
solitary confinement.
Interrogation has
been sporadic and none has been charged or allowed visits by their lawyers.
A few have had family visits.
They include scientists
who were never members of the Ba'ath party, like Dr Amer al Saadi, who
was the Iraqi government's liaison with the United Nations' weapons
inspectors.
Family members claim
they are being deliberately held without trial so as to be punished
even in the absence of evidence of wrongdoing.
US lawyers have
been helping Iraqis prepare charges against Saddam but officials say
they do not expect a trial until next year at the earliest. The US and
the Iraqi authorities hope other defendants will first testify against
him.
But none has been
willing to do so. Whether it is out of loyalty or fear of retribution
by Saddam's sympathisers is not clear.
Once charged the
former president will be entitled to judicial guarantees including access
to a lawyer and the right to prepare a defence.
The US has made
clear it will continue to detain some Iraqis after the transfer of sovereignty
as part of its security operations.