Posted on 03/24/2003 8:00:44 PM PST by mhking
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UMM QASR, Iraq (Reuters) - Who wants to be an Iraqi prisoner of war?
Plenty of people in southern Iraq it seems, as it is about the only way to get a square meal in this swathe of territory now controlled by U.S. and British forces.
With over 3,000 prisoners of war held in an enclosure on the outskirts of Umm Qasr, civilians in the battle-scarred port town are trying to "surrender" as a means of getting food and water.
"I am a deserter and I am trying to surrender," one Iraqi told Reuters on Monday at the gates of an ever-growing transit camp for genuine POWs.
But with no uniform or army identity tags or papers, the sentries guarding the facility turned him away.
Further up the road, a group of other Iraqi men also claimed they were soldiers in the hope of being taken away and fed and watered, later jokingly admitting they were just trying it on.
But it is no laughing matter being a genuine POW, although British soldiers guarding the Iraqi prisoners outside Umm Qasr said they were being treated fairly and humanely.
"We abide fully by the Geneva Conventions relating to POWs," Major Rachel Grimes told Reuters. She said prisoners were given plenty of water and "good halal food" -- prepared according to Islamic doctrine.
The Geneva Convention forbids subjecting POWs to being filmed, photographed or interviewed by news media -- a subject that rankles with the coalition soldiers aware of the treatment meted out to some of their comrades captured by Iraqi forces.
DAZED AND BEWILDERED
The Arabic-language satellite channel al Jazeera on Sunday showed Iraqi footage of captured American soldiers -- some injured -- being subjected to a barrage of questions in the full glare of a television camera.
They appeared dazed and bewildered -- something they had in common with a genuine Iraqi soldier Reuters saw surrendering to soldiers from the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment manning a roadblock near Al Zubayr, around 30 kms (18 miles) south of Basra.
Dressed in a disheveled green-brown uniform of the regular Iraqi army, he walked gingerly down the road, arms held high above his head, eyes staring wide with fear as he approached a gauntlet of four huge Challenger 2 tanks and their crews.
They searched him for weapons and questioned him briefly before offering him water. Still apprehensive about his fate, he squatted behind a tank awaiting collection by military police.
Grimes said there was concern about how the Iraqis would treat POWs.
"They say they will treat our prisoners according to Islamic conventions, but who knows what that means?" she asked.
Actually, the Koran -- first recited by the prophet Mohammed over 1,600 years ago when rival Arab clans fought frequent wars -- insists on mercy for enemy fighters who surrender, but is less specific regarding those captured in battle.
Iraqi television has carried a statement said to be from President Saddam Hussein, pledging that Iraq will abide by the Geneva Convention in its treatment of POWs.
Major Grimes noted -- not without some irony -- that U.S. and British forces were supplying captured soldiers with chemical and biological suits to protect them against the type of weapons that were one of the prime reasons for the conflict.
Those captured with gas masks -- mostly officers -- are allowed to keep them, although she said few prisoners bothered to don protection suits when missile alerts were sounded.
"They don't seem bothered," she said, after another missile alert send troops clamoring for their gas masks.
(credit to Monty Python's Life of Brian where due)
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