Deliberate failure to treat PoW violates law: ICRC

The comments came after a report that US military doctors working at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq helped design abusive interrogation methods and failed to report deaths triggered by beatings.

"There is absolutely no doubt that the Geneva Conventions as well as other human rights legislation prohibit any form of mistreatment and torture of people deprived of their freedom," ICRC spokesman Florian Westphal said.

Jailors were under a clear obligation to provide sufficient medical aid to their captives, he told a news conference in Geneva.

"Deliberately not providing that would appear to be, to me, in violation of the requirements of the conventions," he added.

Westphal had no comment to make on whether the ICRC, which has been the only agency with access to Iraqi prisoners since the US-led invasion last year, had also found evidence of abuse by doctors.

The spokesman said he had read the study, which is due to be published in the Lancet journal Saturday.

Citing government documents, including sworn testimony of detainees and troops, the respected medical weekly outlined a disturbing litany of failures by medics to safeguard detainees' human rights at the prison.

"This is something which would be taken up by the ICRC in its continued dialogue with the people directly responsible, the detaining authorities," the Red Cross spokesman said.

Medical staff and experts usually accompany ICRC staff when they visit prisons in Iraq, including Abu Ghrab on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Reports by the ICRC raised warning flags about prisoner abuse in Iraq, which resulted in a huge scandal for the US administration.

Reuters adds: A US Army investigation into abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq finds they resulted from failures of leadership at the highest levels of command, the Washington Post reported yesterday.

The Post quoted unnamed senior defence officials as saying the investigation led by Maj. Gen. George Fay found that a combination of leadership failures, confusing policies, lack of discipline and "absolute confusion" at the prison led to the abuse.