Red Cross in talks with US on Saddam visit

GENEVA - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is still discussing with the United States details of a planned visit to former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and no date has been fixed, officials said on Wednesday.

Under the terms of the Geneva Convention covering prisoners of war (POW), which Washington has said applies to Saddam, the Red Cross must be allowed access to him, but there are conditions that the humanitarian organisation always insists on.

"We are still discussing the practicalities (of the visit)," Balthasar Staehlin, the agency's delegate-general for the Middle East and Africa, told journalists.

"We hope this visit can take place as quickly as possible. We await now for the final date to be fixed," he added.

Staehlin did not give further details, but other officials said that the conditions would generally include guarantees that the Red Cross could meet privately with a prisoner and that there would be follow-up visits.

But they said that they did not know the precise nature of the discussions with the Americans.

In the case of Saddam, there were also security considerations because the Geneva-based ICRC withdrew its international staff from Baghdad in November after a bomb attack on its offices there the previous month killed 12 people.

Visits to prisoners of war are always carried out by foreign ICRC staffers because of the need to be seen to be both neutral and independent.

Like any other POW, Saddam would be allowed to send letters to his family through the ICRC, but these had to be on "family matters" and would be subject to censorship, Staehlin added.

- REUTERS


Herald Feature: Iraq