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![]() Just Above Sunset
May 30, 2004 - International Law and the Geneva Convention: We Take Hostages...
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International Law and the Geneva Convention: We Take Hostages This is both logical and necessary. Who would disagree? __________________ Sometimes you have to bend
the rules at little, and you can when you’re in the right… BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. troops wanted Jeanan Moayad's
father. When they couldn't find him, they took her husband in his place. Yeah, but we’re the
good guys. The BAD GUYS take hostages.
We do what is necessary to defeat terrorism and evil. "It's clearly an abuse of the powers of arrest, to arrest one person and say that you're going to hold him until he gives information about somebody else, especially a close relative," said John Quigley, an international law professor at Ohio State University. "Arrests are supposed to be based on suspicion that the person has committed some offense." Well, this guy…. Ohio State? He probably hangs out at
Larry’s, that gay bar on High Street. U.S. officials deny that there is a systematic practice of detaining relatives to pressure Iraqi fugitives into surrendering. "The coalition does not take hostages," said a senior military official who asked not to be named. "Relatives who might have information about wanted persons are sometimes detained for questioning, and then they are released. There is no policy of holding people as bargaining chips." Yep. If there is no policy, well, it doesn’t happen. … Iraqi human rights groups say they have documented dozens of cases similar to Moayad's,
in which family members who are not accused of any crimes have been detained for weeks or even months and told that they would
be released only when a wanted relative surrenders to U.S. forces. But this is war against
evil. Doesn’t anyone understand that?
The senior U.S. military official declined to discuss the detention of al-Douri's relatives, saying it is a "special case with very unusual circumstances." In the past, U.S. officials had likened the detentions to those of a material witness who is held for questioning. Why don’t they just
trust us on this? Art. 31. No
physical or moral coercion shall be exercised against protected persons, in particular to obtain information from them or
from third parties. A "protected person" under the Fourth Geneva Convention is broadly defined as follows: Art. 4. Persons protected by the Convention are those who, at a given moment and in any manner whatsoever, find themselves, in case of a conflict or occupation, in the hands of a Party to the conflict or Occupying Power of which they are not nationals. Article 146 of the Fourth Geneva Convention requires each "High Contracting Party," including the United States, to enact legislation to punish those who commit grave breaches of the Convention. Article 147 defines "grave breaches" as including "unlawful confinement" and "taking of hostages": Art. 146. The
High Contracting Parties undertake to enact any legislation necessary to provide effective penal sanctions for persons committing,
or ordering to be committed, any of the grave breaches of the present Convention defined in the following Article. The United States, in the War Crimes Act of 1996, codified at Title 18, section 1441 of the United States Code, implements sections 146 and 147's requirement to provide criminal penalties for grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, such as the taking of hostages: Section 2441. War crimes
Bottom line: every member
of the United States armed forces, and every United States national, responsible for holding an Iraqi hostage in order to
induce his or her relative to surrender is guilty of a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and of 28 U.S.C. section
1441. Every such person (particularly those in positions of authority) should
be prosecuted as a war criminal. |
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This issue updated and published on...
Paris readers add nine hours....
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