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In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Filming Saddam Sons Against Geneva Spirit: Amnesty

By Hadi Yahmid, IOL France Correspondent

PARIS, July 26 (IslamOnline.net) – The international human rights
watchdog Amnesty International criticized Saturday, July 26, the
United States for allowing reporters to film the bodies reported to be
of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's two sons, Qusay and Uday,
saying it was in contravention of "the spirit" of Geneva Conventions
on prisoners.

"(The fourth) Geneva Convention does not explicitly rule against
displaying photos of the war casualties, but its spirit provides
mainly for respecting the bodies of the dead and refrain from using
them for propaganda purposes," Kamal al-Samari, Amnesty official
spokesman told IslamOnline.net.

He said the U.S. move of displaying the bodies of the two brothers on
TV screens "constitutes a political decision that pays no respect to
the dignity of the dead and implicitly contravenes the Geneva
Conventions."

"What happened was a political decision that ran counter to human
rights and man's right not to be mutilated after death," asserted the
spokesman.

The U.S. military allowed reporters to film the bodies Friday, July
25, raising a world-wide controversy over taking the grisly pictures
of the bullet-riddled mutilated bodies to the air.

The faces of the bodies were waxy after undergoing cosmetic facial
reconstruction in an effort to make them resemble the two brothers.

The move was harshly criticized by law experts, human rights advocates
and media specialists Friday.

Some commentators lambasted the United States over the photos and then
the filming of the dead bodies, especially that Washington had
protested when Arab television broadcast pictures of U.S. soldiers
killed by Iraqis forces during the invasion.

After the Arab channel Al-Jazeera aired a video tape of the bodies
wearing bloodstained camouflage uniforms and some appeared to have
bullet wounds to the head, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said
the move was a violation of the Geneva conventions.

This time Rumsfeld, who ordered the filming, argued it was important
to convince skeptic Iraqis that Sadam's sons were dead.

The U.S. confirmed Tuesday, July 22, that Qusay and Uday had been
killed in an attack on a house at al-Falah district in the northern
Iraqi city of Mosul.

Accountability

On the U.S. military operation to liquidate Qusay and Uday, Amnesty
spokesman pressed for treating captured Iraqi officials in accordance
with the relevant international conventions, asserting that the
convicts should put on a fair trial.

"Therefore, Amnesty is against treating former Iraqi officials accused
of human rights violations in a way other than this," he said.

Samari further said the London-based human rights watchdog supports
the relatives of Iraqis victimized by the former Iraqi regime to know
the fate of their loved ones.

"Those accused of human rights violations should stand fair trial, and
Amnesty is calling for reforming the Iraqi judiciary and has a number
of proposals in this respect," he added.

On the U.S. and British violations of human rights in Iraq, Samari
said Amnesty submitted recently a 25-page report to the U.S.-led
occupation administration in Iraq on "excessive use of force, shooting
demonstrators, maltreating prisoners and civilians by American
soldiers."

He said an Amnesty delegation is currently visiting Iraq and engaged
in talks with Shiites leaders in the northern Iraqi city of An-Najaf.

The human rights organization stands ready to cooperate with the
leaders of the religious communities in Iraq to maintain equality
between all Iraqis, added Samari.

He further said Amnesty contacted members of the new Governing Council
and the occupation authorities, noting that the organization placed
the interests of Iraqis high on the agenda.

The 25-member U.S.-handpicked council of prominent Iraqis from diverse
political and religious backgrounds was named at an inaugural meeting
Sunday, July 13.

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