| Subject: US holds 7,300 POWs in Iraq, weighs their fate |
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Date Posted: 21:58:49 04/10/03 Thu
US holds 7,300 POWs in Iraq, weighs their fate
REUTERS[ THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2003 12:02:30 AM ]
WASHINGTON: American-led forces have captured at least 7,300 prisoners of war in Iraq and will soon begin the legal process to determine their future, the US military said on Wednesday.
In a briefing at the Pentagon from the US military's main prisoner of war camp in Umm Qasr in southern Iraq, the colonel in charge of the facility said plans had been prepared to take up to 50,000 prisoners.
"We were planning for about 50,000 ... or higher," said US Army Col. John Della Jacono, adding that the military had expected to see large numbers of Iraqi forces surrender like in the 1991 Gulf War when Americans captured about 83,000 Iraqis. "We developed a capitulation strategy too .... However at this point in time we have seen very few capitulate."
"I think a lot of the soldiers are just leaving," he said. "There have been a lot of reports of tanks and positions just abandoned."
The 7,300 prisoners, captured by US and British troops, are currently spread around the country, with about 236 being treated at field hospitals or on the US hospital ship Comfort in the Gulf. Of the prisoners now held at Umm Qasr, three or four are believed to be high-ranking Iraqi military officers.
They will all eventually be processed at the Umm Qasr camp, where lawyers will shortly begin determining their status and how they will be handled by US forces.
"Once they are vetted they are either fully accorded EPW (enemy prisoner of war) status ... or they might at a future point and time be turned over for criminal prosecution for a crime committed against the coalition or against the Iraqi people," Della Jacono said.
Most of the prisoners at Umm Qasr have been through initial interrogation and some have given some basic information on the Iraqi military, he said.
Some prisoners to be repatriated
Once through the tribunal process, the US government will need to determine when and how to repatriate some of the Iraqis.
Della Jacono said once there was a "legitimate" interim government the US government would turn over an unspecified number of the Iraqi prisoners.
Other US officials said earlier the United States planned to conduct trials of Iraqis alleged to have committed war crimes against American forces, possibly including President Saddam Hussein and his sons.
Officials from the Pentagon and State Department have said the United States did not intend to turn to an international tribunal to carry out the proceedings.
Della Jacono said the camp in Umm Qasr would be the final destination of the prisoners of war. The United States has no plans to send them to a detention facility at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where hundreds captured in Afghanistan are being held.
The International Committee for the Red Cross has visited the camp.
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