Amnesty International has appealed to Iraqi authorities to follow the Geneva Conventions in their treatment of US prisoners of war, and urged all media to ensure that the dignity of POWs is respected in the use of television images.
"Amnesty International calls on the Iraqi authorities to treat United States prisoners of war in full conformity with the Third Geneva Convention, following the broadcast today on Iraqi television of captured US soldiers," the London-based rights group said in a statement on Sunday.
"They should not be subjected to any form of torture or ill-treatment and should be given immediate access to the International Committee of the Red Cross."
Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based Arab satellite channel, and Iraqi state television on Sunday broadcast images of several dead bodies, apparently US soldiers killed in Iraq, along with five prisoners, including two wounded, one of them a woman.
Amnesty "calls on all media to ensure in its use of images that the dignity of all prisoners of war, whether Iraqi or US or other, is respected," the organisation said.
It noted that under Article 14 of the Convention, prisoners of war "are entitled in all circumstances to respect for their persons and their honour," while Article 13 says they "must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity".
It noted that under Article 14 of the Convention, prisoners of war "are entitled in all circumstances to respect for their persons and their honour," while Article 13 says they "must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity".