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Debate over treatment of Iraqi prisoners

BBC NEWS ONLINE, Umm Qasr
Some Iraqi troops have already surrendered to US-led forces. Strict rules govern the treatment of PoWs, although not everyone can agree how they should be applied.
The sight of Iraqi troops waving white flags in surrender will offer encouragement to US and British military planners in the Gulf.
It seems several dozen Iraqi soldiers have already chosen to give up fighting.
A BBC correspondent alone reported seeing about 60 men emerge from their bunkers near the southern peninsular of al-Faw and surrendering to British commandos, on Friday morning.
Another 250 are said to have thrown in the towel in the town of Umm Qasr. However, Iraq has said the surrenders are being staged by the US using actors.
Nevertheless, if this is like the last Gulf War, many more prisoners of war are likely to be taken over the coming days or weeks. By the end of hostilities in 1991, the US Department of Defence reported taking 50,000 Iraqi PoWs.
Once a soldier has turned himself over, he may be in enemy hands, but his treatment is governed by interna-
tional law, namely the third Geneva Convention.
Some 189 countries have signed up to the tenets of the convention since it was drawn up 50 years ago. The principles establish basic humanitarian rights for all prisoners.
The Red Cross has responsibility for visiting prisoners and seeing that the capturing army is obeying the rules.
In the last Gulf War, surrendering Iraqi troops were often surprised at the humane treatment they received, says Chris Lincoln-Jones, a British commander at the time.
"At the moment of surrender they were often extremely scared because they'd heard from their officers that they would be shot by the enemy."
The emotion was such that British combatants were sometimes embarrassed by witnessing men collapse to their feet and start crying in front of them and "begging to be spared".
UK troops are well-versed in the rules for handling PoWs everyone from an infantryman up receives an annual refresher course. There is also a separate "ethics package" which sets out the sort of behaviour that is expected of British troops in combat.
Mostly these are respected, says Lincoln-Jones, who recalls an episode in the last Gulf War when an
opportunistic Iraqi, shielded by his surrendering colleagues, fired a rocket-propelled grenade which killed a British soldier.
"It was a heated and tense moment and the other Iraqis might have feared for their lives. But while the culprit was killed, the other men were left unscathed."
This time though, questions are being asked about the conduct of some troops after reports that some Iraqi soldiers are being forced to strip so they can be searched for concealed explosives.
The fear is that soldiers turning themselves over will turn out to be suicide bombers. Such an attack would have echoes of the revolt by Taleban prisoners held by American-backed forces in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan.
There was a bloodbath when prisoners, using concealed weapons, rose up against their captors.
British command in the UK refused to comment on reports of partial or full strip searching, but the idea appals Chris Lincoln-Jones.
"This would be extremely humiliating to a Muslim. It's possible to search prisoners without stripping them and you can pretty much tell if someone is going to try something."