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a948: Haitian-American Ambassador (fwd)
From: SBrown8670@aol.com
US ambassador: It's time to
rewrite the Geneva Conventions
Posted on Friday, February 22 @ 10:01:07 EST
By Kim Sengupta, London Independent
The Geneva Conventions are outdated and need to be
rewritten to deal with the threat of international
terrorism, the United States ambassador for war crimes
said yesterday.
The forthright views of Pierre-Richard Prosper, who
was personally appointed by President Bush, will fuel
the controversy over the treatment of Afghan
detainees by America. His remarks, in an interview
with The Independent, represent the first time a senior
figure in the Bush administration has spoken so
unambiguously about an overhaul of the conventions.
They reflect Washington's exasperation at criticism by
Western allies and international organisations of its
treatment ofprisoners at Camp X-Ray on Cuba.
The Geneva Conventions have tempered some of the
worst excesses of modern warfare, and attempts to
tamper with them are bound to lead to opposition.
However, there is a growing feeling in the
administration that the present form of the
conventions, signed in 1949, does not take into account
the new type of conflict in which individuals and
organisations, such as al-Qa'ida, rather than states,
wage war.
"We should look at all international documents to see
whether they are compatible with this moment in
history. We should look at them now, and look at them
again in the future, in 20 years' time, in 50 years'
time,"
Mr Prosper said.
"The war on terror is a new type of war not envisaged
when the Geneva Conventions were negotiated and
signed. We now have organisations that ... do not
conduct their operations in accordance with the laws
and customs of war."
The ambassador stressed that the Geneva Conventions
remained relevant for wars between sovereign states.
Difficulties had only arisen when they had been applied
to international terrorism.
Mr Prosper, the son of Haitian immigrants, is a
respected jurist who successfully prosecuted the first
case under the 1948 Genocide Convention at the
Rwanda war crimes tribunal. He is in Europe to defend
American policy towards its Afghan prisoners, and met
Foreign Office officials yesterday.
Washington's position on the prisoners has been
inconsistent. After initially declaring that none was
entitled to the protection of the conventions,President
Bush said this month that Taliban prisoners fell under
Geneva but al-Qa'ida prisoners would not. He later
added to the confusion by saying that Taliban prisoners
would not have PoW status but would be treated as
"unlawful combatants".
But Mr Prosper said yesterday: "Analysis of the Geneva
Conventions leads us to the conclusion that the Taliban
detainees do not meet the legal criteria under Article
4."
He stressed that the prisoners, whom he had visited,
were being well looked after and some of the privileges
of the Geneva Conventions had been extended to them.
Reprinted from The London Independent:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/
americas/story.jsp?story=139004
Dr. Stephen D. Brown sbrown8670@aol.com