Posted 12:12 AM
by The Moderator
t r u t h o u t - Israel Urged to Adopt Geneva Convention: "Israel Urged to Adopt Geneva Convention
By Laura King
Los Angeles Times
Wednesday 25 August 2004
Accepting the attorney general's proposal could cloud the government's contention that Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza are legal.
Jerusalem - In the first such recommendation by a senior Israeli official, the country's attorney general has urged that Israel consider adopting the Fourth Geneva Convention, a document that lays out the responsibilities of an occupying military power toward civilians under its control.
Successive Israeli governments have refused to formally recognize the United Nations protocols as applying to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel seized from Jordan and Egypt respectively in the 1967 Middle East War.
Israel contends - although many human rights groups disagree - that it already follows the humanitarian principles of the convention in its treatment of Palestinians. The 1949 accord is meant to protect people under occupation from torture and unnecessary hardship, and to guarantee basic services such as education and healthcare. "
Posted 12:40 AM
by The Moderator
Ordered to Just Walk Away: "Published on Saturday, August 7, 2004 by The Oregonian
Ordered to Just Walk Away
by Mike Francis
BAGHDAD -- The national guardsman peering through the long-range scope of his rifle was startled by what he saw unfolding in the walled compound below.
From his post several stories above ground level, he watched as men in plainclothes beat blindfolded and bound prisoners in the enclosed grounds of the Iraqi Interior Ministry.
He immediately radioed for help. Soon after, a team of Oregon Army National Guard soldiers swept into the yard and found dozens of Iraqi detainees who said they had been beaten, starved and deprived of water for three days.
In a nearby building, the soldiers counted dozens more prisoners and what appeared to be torture devices -- metal rods, rubber hoses, electrical wires and bottles of chemicals. Many of the Iraqis, including one identified as a 14-year-old boy, had fresh welts and bruises across their back and legs.
The soldiers disarmed the Iraqi jailers, moved the prisoners into the shade, released their handcuffs and administered first aid. Lt. Col. Daniel Hendrickson of Albany, Ore., the highest ranking American at the scene, radioed for instructions.
But in a move that frustrated and infuriated the guardsmen, Hendrickson's superior officers told him to return the prisoners to their abusers and immediately withdraw. It was June 29 -- Iraq's first official day as a sovereign country since the U.S.-led invasion.
