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IRAQI TV MALICIOUSLY EXPOSES FOOTAGE
OF U.S. POW’S
By Sara Clark
Al Jazeera television aired Sunday in Iraq the first gruesome footage of United States soldiers that were captured by Iraqi forces during the war on Iraq.
The pictures, too humiliating to air in the United States, showed soldiers who appeared to be executed and those who appeared to be held for interrogation. U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, called the tape disgusting and said it strictly violated the Geneva Convention articles 3 and 13.
Article 3 of the Geneva Convention states, “The following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the (armed forces)…outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment.”
Saddam Hussein said in the past that his troops will follow and respect the Geneva Convention, and made sure that the U.S. understood that they must follow and respect it also.
However, Richard Engel, a CNN news analyst who has been investigating Hussein since 1991, told CNN news that Hussein has no intentions of keeping his word.
“These soldiers are being treated as mercenaries, not Prisoners Of War (POW),” Engel said. “They have showed no respect for them.”
Former POW’s have come forward to illustrate their treatment by Iraqi forces during the Golf War of 1991. Lt. Col. Dale Starr was held in Baghdad for 32 days after his plane was shot down in Kuwait and said the Geneva Convention was the last thing in the minds of those forces.
“They never even tried to obey the Geneva Convention with us,” Starr said. “They’d handcuff you, blindfold you, and walk you into a concrete wall, and they’d think that was funny.”
The treatment of Starr and the other POW’s is a violation of article 13 of the Geneva Convention which simply states in it’s first line, “Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated.”
Maj. Gen. Peter Wall, Chief of Staff, UK, expressed his opinion on the Geneva Convention and how different countries express their views.
“We take our responsibility under the Geneva Convention very seriously and after seeing the disgusting footage of the captured, it is obvious that Saddam’s Regime does not,” Wall said
It is thought that the captured soldiers are the first that have been tricked by Iraqi troops. Iraqi troops have used different tactics to take over their enemy that include sneaky plans. Lt. Gen. John Abizaid released some of these tactics.
“In one instance, Iraqi forces waived their surrender flag, in others they dressed in civilian clothes and pretended to welcome our soldiers and then proceeded to ambush them,” Abizaid said.
After the bogus civilian trick, it is difficult for U.S. troops to distinguish between those who are true civilians searching for help, and those Iraqi troops who use deception to capture their enemy.
Brig. Gen. John Clark, a specialist on legal air combat matters offered his personal opinions on the act of the Iraqi soldiers.
“We use the ‘fake surrender’ as an example of an unlawful act when training our troops,” Clark said. “When soldiers dress in civilian clothes to obtain a tactical advantage, the real civilians are put at risk.”
Some war analysts believe that the Iraqis resort to this behavior because they simply know that in the end they will be defeated. Clark continued to analyze the extent of the dishonest acts of the Iraqi troops.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they started placing red crosses (an internationally-recognized protected symbol) on armored vehicles,” Clark said. “That’s another example we use of prohibited conduct. That might be next.”