By Jacquelyn S. Porth
Washington File Security Affairs Writer

A top U.S. military legal expert says coalition forces are granting captured Iraqi soldiers all the protections called for by the Geneva Conventions and other relevant laws, but those Iraqis found to have committed war crimes will face prosecution.

In an April 7 Pentagon briefing, W. Hays Parks, special assistant to the Judge Advocate General for the U.S. Army, noted that the United States and Iraq are both parties to the Geneva Conventions requiring them to treat prisoners of war (POWs) according to set international standards. All parties are obligated to follow the laws of war, he said.

The 1949 Geneva Conventions apply to anyone serving in the military who is wounded or becomes sick on the battlefield, those who are in the same category but are shipwrecked, POWs, and civilians who are held by the enemy.

Any soldier who is captured or surrenders, Parks said:

-- must be treated humanely;
-- cannot be executed or endangered while in captivity;
-- should be removed from the battlefield as swiftly as possible and protected "from physical or mental harm";
-- must be given adequate food, shelter and medical care;
-- must be protected from "acts of violence, insults or public curiosity";
-- need only provide -- under questioning -- name, military rank, serial number and birth date;
-- cannot be tortured physically or mentally;
-- should be allowed to retain his or her personal property, or, if it is collected it must be "receipted";
-- should be given access to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as soon as practical;
-- should be protected from assault, including sexual assault; and
-- if a soldier dies in captivity (or dies in battle), the body must be protected from pillage and maltreatment, interred, and his or her identification provided to the ICRC.

Coalition forces are adhering to these conventions, just as they did during the 1991 Persian Gulf conflict when, Parks said, some 86,000 Iraqi POWs were processed. In contrast, he said those same protections are not being respected by Iraq in the current military operation, nor were they respected during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. While wounded Iraqi soldiers are receiving medical care and Red Cross visits, the Army official said, the Red Cross has yet to gain access to U.S. POWs.

The U.S. government will do all in its power, Parks said, "to bring to justice anyone who by action or inaction, is responsible for violations of the laws of war." He provided several concrete examples of Iraqi violations that have occurred at the direction of the Iraqi regime in recent weeks, including Iraq's state-run television broadcast (and re-broadcast by al-Jazeera) of "pillage and ill-treatment" of the bodies of dead U.S. soldiers; another broadcast by Iraqi TV (and rebroadcast by al-Jazeera) of U.S. soldiers being forced to answer questions under duress in a humiliating and degrading manner and subject to "public curiosity"; and Iraqi soldiers either dressed as civilians or waving the white flag of surrender to draw coalition forces near enough to ambush them in what are legally called "acts of perfidy."

Pierre-Richard Prosper, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, who also participated in the briefing, noted that there has been a "systematic pattern" of abuses by Iraqi forces and "a complete disregard for the law by the regime as well as ... for human life." He accused the Iraqi regime of blurring the distinction between combatants and non-combatants, putting thousands of Iraqi civilians "in harm's way."

Providing concrete examples, the ambassador said Iraqi forces have placed human shields in deliberate danger and fired mortars and machine-guns against civilians fleeing combat areas. Prosper also said civilians have been forced into military services under grave threat and the regime has hidden weapons in mosques and other civilian sanctuaries.

Prosper said accountability for war crimes and atrocities would be pursued through an Iraqi-led process. "We must re-instate the rule of law within Iraq," he said. Abuses that occurred prior to the coalition military operation will be addressed through a mechanism that is being formulated through Iraqi jurists and members of the Iraqi exile community, Prosper said, and the United States stands ready to provide any technical, financial or logistical support that may be required. Parks said the government of Kuwait might also have an interest in pursuing Iraqis who committed atrocities during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1991.

In response to a question from a reporter, Prosper said prosecution of current Iraqi abuses does not require the establishment of an international tribunal. Instead, he said, the United States has the sovereign right to process violations through military proceedings or civilian courts. The International Criminal Court would not have jurisdiction in any of these cases, according to the ambassador, because neither Iraq nor the United States is party to the founding treaty.

For now, Parks said the coalition is focusing on winning militarily in Iraq. The focus also is on protecting Iraqi POWs and providing medical care for them. In the next week or so, however, he said there would be more attention given to initiating the judicial process that will determine the status of the Iraqis being held. The status of detained non-Iraqi soldiers, who fought along side Iraqi soldiers, will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, according to Parks, depending on what type of uniform they were wearing at the time of capture and what they are accused of doing.

Prosper said the penalties for those found guilty of crimes will range from prison sentences to the death penalty. Parks said there are no plans to send any Iraqi POWs to U.S. detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where alleged members of al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban are being held.

Parks was questioned about the coalition practice of putting hoods over the heads of prisoners. He said it is standard operating procedure to either blindfold or place a hood over a prisoner when captured for two reasons: to prevent escape and to prevent the prisoner from gathering military intelligence should he escape successfully. The prisoner is still able to breathe through the hood, the official said, and it is not a form of prisoner abuse.

Asked about plans to prosecute top Iraqi regime leaders, such as Saddam Hussein's son Uday, Prosper said he is among the top tier leaders of most interest. A time line of abuses has been prepared, he said, and Uday's role in conducting or promoting abusive practices has been documented throughout the term of the Iraqi regime. His abuses, and those of others such as his father and brother, have been catalogued, the ambassador said, and evidence is being preserved.