| Release Iraqi Prisoners&Arab Detainees from American Detention Camps
The American-British aggression against Iraq is
a continuous aggression since 12 years ago, where air raids didn’t stop.
This aggression against Iraq is not the first violation for the
international law that America commits. America has a rich history in this
course. More than 75 aggressions are recorded for America, in the last
century and it’s enough to mention as examples the aggressions against
Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Libya, Somalia, Yugoslavia
and Afghanistan, in addition to the enslavement of the Black in Africa,
bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki and exterminating the Red Indians.
Moreover, America has inactivated the job of the United Nations Agency;
especially its humanitarian committees like UNESCO, and suspended the
decisions of the Security Council through using the Vito against the rights
and benefits of the populations and through disrespecting the decisions of
the General Assembly. America went even beyond all that when refused to
apply the sentence of the International Court of Justice on 1986 in which
was condemned for violating the International Law in Nicaragua… America also
refuses o join and sign most of the international conventions, especially
the ones related to environmental issues and armament limitation. And it’s
worthy to mention that America and Somalia are the only countries that
refused to sign the Child Convention.
The American liberal policy is causing the death of thousands of people
daily. However, we’re not intending to uncover the crimes that America and
England are committing daily against the Iraqi population, from killing,
destructing and ruining the humanitarian heritage of a nation but we’re
going to talk about the Iraqi and Arab prisoners.
The invaders have committed wide collective detention operations that
included children, women and elderly using savage methods where the
prisoners were shackled having their heads covered with bags and being
kicked down. Yet, we can’t show these entire savage practices that violate
the international law because of a total informational blackout aiming at
hiding the fact that those prisoners are being treated the same as
Guantanamo prisoners were treated.
The international law discriminates between the civil prisoners and the
military ones by a set of protecting legislations.
Though such a protection is similar, but originally the international law
forbids the occupying country from detaining the civilians unless there are
some exceptional conditions as in case of the compulsory security causes
(article 78 of the 4th convention).
America can’t convince any reasonable person that the detention operations
of the Iraqi civilians are happening for Security causes, for the big number
of detainees and the way they are detained contradicts with that.
The most important legislations in the international law was those related
to treating war prisoners in a humanitarian way and their right to be
respected and to practice their religion and traditions (articles 13 and 29
of the 4rth convention).
A prisoner enjoys a set of rights since the moment he’s detained, and the
detaining country is forbidden to investigate or suit him (article17 of the
3rd convention), also it’s not allowed to practice any kind of
torture against them. Moreover, the detaining country should declare the
name of the prisoner and the place where he’s imprisoned and to allow him to
communicate with his family (articles 60 and 69 of the 3rd
convention, articles 105 and 106 of the 4rth convention). The detaining
country should above all establish an official information office for the
inquiry about the prisoners and that office should give all the information
it got about those prisoners (article123 of the third convention).
Thus, torture and savage practices that the invaders are using in Iraq
against the detainees violate Geneva conventions (article 130 of the 3rd
convention and article 147 of the 4rth convention) from the perspectives of
the international law. And each violation is considered a war crime
(paragraph 5 of the article 85 of the First Protocol).
Article 30 of Geneva Convention the 3rd, has considered torture
and savage treatment a big violation for the international law. As for
Article 147 of Geneva Convention the 4th the illegal banishment
or detention is also a big violation.
The First Protocol adds that each unjustified delay in releasing the
prisoners is a great violation. Thus, the detaining country should release
the prisoners immediately, and without any delay, after the end of the
military operations (articles118 of the 3rd convention and
articles 132 and 143 of the 4th of convention).
So by not releasing the detainees and prisoners, the invaders are committing
another violation that is added to their rich in crimes history (paragraph 5
of the article 58 of the First Protocol).
For what proceeded,
Khiam Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture, appeals to the UN and
the International Law to exert pressures on the American forces in Iraq to
comply with Geneva Convention the 4th and release immediately the
Iraqi civilians that are detained with the Iraqi soldiers and the Arab
volunteers who were detained for resisting the invaders, and to uncover the
destiny of thousands of missing people.
The center also appeals to the International Committee of Red Cross to visit
the detainees and assures their communication with their families and to
investigate their conditions.
Moreover, the center calls upon to send human rights investigators to
investigate the war crimes that were committed during the Ex-Iraqi regime
and the current occupation.
From another side, the center appeals to all the rehabilitation centers in
the Arab and Foreign countries to send forth of medical delegates to help
the victims of war and rehabilitate them.
At the end, the center calls all the national and international human rights
organizations to form defending committees to support the rights of the
Iraqi and Arab detainees because their detention violates the International
Laws and Geneva Conventions.
08/05/2003 |