By David Denny
Washington File staff writer

Washington -- The approximately 7,300 Iraqi and other enemy prisoners of war in coalition custody in Iraq are receiving plenty of food and drink, those with wounds are receiving prompt medical treatment, and all are allowed to practice their religion, according to a U.S. Army officer in Umm Qasr, Iraq.

Colonel John Della Jacono, deputy chief of staff to the coalition forces land component commander, briefed media April 9 from Iraq via telephone connections to the Pentagon and U.S. press centers in Kuwait and Qatar. He stated "categorically" that enemy prisoners of war (EPWs) have received "care and humane treatment" from coalition forces.

All injured EPWs receive medical treatment, Della Jacono said. About 236 prisoners are in custody now, he said, and they are treated in field hospitals on the battlefield, and some are treated on the U.S. Navy hospital ship "Comfort," he said.

"So immediately, if we encounter a wounded EPW, he's getting the immediate care to treat him accordingly," Della Jacono said.

The colonel said EPWs farther north in Iraq not yet in the prisoner compound near Umm Qasr are fed the same food that coalition soldiers are eating -- meals ready to eat (MREs) and water. At the camp, though, a mess hall has been set up, and when a prisoner arrives, he receives an initial box of food, juice, bread -- "a pretty hefty little lunch kit ... to initially feed him as he gets to the facility," Della Jacono said.

"Right now they are using some of the Iraqi EPWs to assist in the preparation of their meals. So in the morning they were given fruit, tea, some sundry items, bread. At night they get their rice. They get meat, vegetables, and a pretty decent broth, and your sundry items with that -- water, juice, ... some tinned food items. So they are being well fed here," with two hot meals a day, Della Jacono said.

The prisoners are allowed to practice their religion in the compound, he said. Once necessary supplies are received, he said, prisoners will be issued prayer rugs and copies of the Koran, he added.

Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited the prisoner compound the week of March 31 and spent three to five days on site, Della Jacono said. The Red Cross representatives were satisfied with the conditions and the treatment, and they will make daily visits, he said.

Della Jacono praised British forces for performing the initial construction of the camp.

"The British did an outstanding job; they put up some capability, because we immediately had EPWs on the battlefield. And ... they really did a bang-up job. They had a mess kitchen set up in record time; they had tentage up, they had security in. And so they were able to accept their own EPWs, but at a certain point in time, they also started accepting the Marine EPWs and the V Corps EPWs," he said. He added that camp expansion will continue until it can accommodate 24,000 prisoners, with a capability of further expansion, he said.

Asked whether some of the prisoners will be transferred to the U.S. military's detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- set up to hold prisoners captured in Afghanistan and suspected of terrorist connections, Della Jacono said "There are no plans at this point to transfer any of these EPWs to Guantanamo Bay. That's not even in the plans."

He said the prisoners at the Umm Qasr compound will undergo "tribunal hearings" at some point, and will be categorized either as enemy prisoners of war or as "civilian internees," that is, someone who has committed a criminal act or is considered a security risk, he said.

For those categorized as enemy prisoners of war, Della Jacono said repatriation procedures will come into effect once hostilities cease and there is a legitimate interim government to accept them. Civilian internees "might, at a future point in time, be turned over for criminal prosecution for a crime committed against the coalition or against the Iraqi people."