Free Republic

The International Tracing Service, which stores information about inmates of Nazi concentration camps, will open its vast archives to researchers by next year, a senior official of the International Committee of the Red Cross said Wednesday. The decision to open the files of the Red Cross-run service was made during the committee's annual meeting, held this week in Jerusalem, after years of debate, ICRC director for international law Francois Bugnion said. The German-based and funded organization, which was founded in 1943 by the British Red Cross, has information relating to 17 million deportees, including Jews and non-Jews. Along with the...

SOUTHERN IRAQ (AFP) - Three US troops were wounded , one seriously, after Iraqi soldiers used a Red Crescent ambulance to stage an attack in southern Iraq (news - web sites), an AFP correspondent reported. The Iraqi troops in Monday opened fire on a group of American soldiers who had approached the ambulance at a town north of Nasiriyah. The seriously injured soldier would be evacuated, while two others were undergoing surgery at a captured air base, a US air force source said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross accused coalition forces yesterday of failing to follow the Geneva Conventions in their treatment of prisoners of war. As British and American anger over the parading of five American soldiers on Iraqi television continued unabated, the ICRC said the allies and the Iraqis should re-examine the way they handled PoWs. Referring to Article 13 in the third convention, Florian Westphal, from the ICRC, said PoWs should at all times be humanely treated, protected particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against "insults and public curiosity". He referred to photographs in the media...