[JURIST] Sunday reports on legal issues relating to the war in Iraq: CBS legal analyst Andrew Cohn discusses POWs and the law, while Lance Gay of Scripps-Howard says that POW rules face an uncertain future.... In another story, Lance Gay describes how lawyers weigh in on battlefield decisions.... Scripps-Howard reporter Mary Diebel says that questions of the war's legality are dogging the US. As if to prove her point, the Finnish News Service reports that Finnish legal experts say the Iraq war is illegal.... Patricia Wilson of Reuters reports that last week's attack on Saddam Hussein was OK under US assassination rules.

[JURIST] US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said Iraq TV's display Sunday of what it claimed were dead and captured US soldiers is a violation of terms of the Geneva Convention. "The Geneva Convention indicates that it's not permitted to photograph and embarrass or humiliate prisoners of war," Rumsfeld said on CBS' Face the Nation. Review the terms of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War [text], Article 13 of which states: "prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity."

The US Army Judge Advocate General's Law of War Workshop Deskbook 2000, Chapter 5 - POWs and Detainees [DOC], gives the following guidance on Article 13 for US personnel dealing with EPWs (Enemy Prisoners of War):

Protect against public curiosity.

1. Art. 13 does not per se prohibit photographing an EPW. Photos may not degrade or humiliate an EPW. In addition, balance harm to an EPW and family against news media value. Bottom line: strict guidelines required.
2. This is in stark contrast to Iraq and North Vietnam’s practice of parading POWs before the news media.

Out of respect for the families and consistent with the principles of the Geneva Conventions:

1) We request news organizations not air or publish recognizable images or audio recordings that identify POWs. Additionally, we request you not use their names, first or last, or their unit until next-of-kin notification is complete. We are working hard to reach their families. We will notify you as soon as this is done.

[JURIST] The UK Ministry of Defense website on Operation Telic (the name of the UK operation in Iraq) [official website] carries this notice Sunday:

On 23 March, an RAF GR4 Tornado aircraft from RAF Marham, which was returning from an operational mission, was engaged near the Kuwaiti border by a Patriot missile battery. The next of kin have been informed. An investigation is underway. Further information will be forthcoming when it is available.

[JURIST] Sunday's field reports from the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross are now available. On the humanitarian situation in Baghdad, the ICRC say:

On Sunday morning, the ICRC teams resumed their assessments and emergency interventions. ICRC teams visited the main hospitals in the city and continued to monitor key water treatment stations to evaluate the quantity and quality of drinking water supplies. Emergency stocks of drinking water were distributed to poorly supplied suburbs of Baghdad as well as to hospitals. According to hospital sources, 32 newly injured patients and 1 dead person arrived in Yarmouk Hospital and two newly injured people were checked in to Ibn Al-Nafis Hospital. No new arrivals of injured patients were reported in Al-Kindi Hospital.

[JURIST] Numerous press reports Sunday describe a grenade attack at a US military camp in Kuwait which killed one US soldier and wounded 13 others. This attack appears to fall under the category of "combat misconduct stress behaviors" described in a US Army Field Manual which also considers their legal repercussions:

Misconduct stress behaviors are most likely to occur in units with poor morale or in units where problems exist.... Often, these misconduct stress behaviors may be the result of stressors and increased stress in a unit. These indicators could be a warning that the potential exists for heavy battle fatigue casualties if this unit is sent to combat.

Reacting to some misconduct stress behaviors is primarily the responsibility of the commanders and the legal system. While all misconduct stress behaviors are disciplinary problems, the extreme examples are violations of the Law of Land Warfare. Violations of the Law of Land Warfare must be reported and the offender(s) brought to justice. While medical, psychological, or psychiatric consultation may, in specific cases, be requested to document mental or organic illness that might support a defense of insanity, combat stress alone is no defense for criminal misconduct. Severe combat stress could be considered as an extenuating factor in determining the soldier's sentence. Examples of such misconduct stress behaviors [include]...

4-14. The Misconduct Stress Behavior of Threatening to Kill or Killing Unit Leaders or Other Soldiers
a. Threatening to kill or killing unpopular leaders or soldiers (called "fragging" and so named from the technique of rolling a fragmentation grenade into the victim's bunker) is also a criminal act and subjects the offender to disciplinary action.

[JURIST] JURIST's limited Sunday service will be expanded today to allow continuing coverage of legal issues and information from the conflict in Iraq.