From: sdr57@cas.org ()
Subject: Re: Burying of POWs, not in Combat [was: **** ANOTHER COVER-UP ]
Organization: Chemical Abstracts Service, Columbus, Ohio
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 19:37:15 GMT

In article <1992Oct5.144949.18486@ousrvr.oulu.fi> dfo@tko.vtt.fi (Foxvog Douglas) writes:
>This discussion is getting way off course.  The original article which
>started it stated that the author had heard from four different DS
>veterans that Iraqi POWs had been ordered to lie in a trench/pit and
>then they were buried.  This is a violation of Geneva Conventions on
>treatment of Prisoners of War.
>
The original post is no longer available at my site - but
my recollection of it is that it was somewhat incoherant,
but contained several statements which suggested that the
incidents being referred to did not, in fact, involve
EPWs, but rather were the incidents in which resisting
troops were buried, and which have been acknowledged by
the pentagon. The original post also bore several indications
that it was intended as flame bait - including being posted
anonymously because the author claimed to be afraid of hit squads.
I also seem to recall that the original poster did use the
term POW (which, if Americans were involved, means that the people
buried were not Iraqi, but rather were American, or possibly
coalition forces, being held by the Iraqis - I can not fathom why
we would bury our own people - the term the US military uses
for prioners they hold is enemy prisoner of war or EPW).
If you still have the original post, please repost it in case my memory
is incorrect.

>This is NOT the same as the burying of Iraqi troops in their trenches
>during their resistance, although the poster's later claim that
>thousands of Iraqis were so buried may refer (I hope!) to that.
>
>Is anyone out there willing to support the alleged activity, the burying
>of Prisoners of War?  Are pro-war people willing to label
>such activity, IF IT OCCURRED, a war crime?  Should such a charge be
>investigated?  If not, is it because US troops should be allowed to
>murder prisoners (in certain circumstances), because we shouldn't make
>such activities public, because it isn't important, or because we refuse
>to believe that OUR BOYS would do such a thing so it must be a lie which
>we won't dignify with an investigation?  Or some other reason?
>
>--
>doug foxvog
>dfo@tko.vtt.fi

Whether you are for or against the war, the deliberate murder of
EPWs is a crime according to the Uniform Code of Military Justice,
usually referred to as the UCMJ. If the alleged acts were performed
by US troops, the UCMJ would apply, and an investigation could be
initiated simply by any one of the vets from whom the original poster
claimed to have heard the story. All that the vet would need to do would
be to file a report. The original poster could also initiate an
investigation by filing a report and naming the vets who told him/her
about this as witnesses. *You* can, if you wish, initiate an
investigation by filing a complaint - however, as your knowledge
of this incident comes from a post about the authenticity of which
I have grave doubts, I suspect that you would have difficulty in having
your complaint taken seriously - "Let me get this straight:
someone you don't know sent you an anonymous message saying
that four people told him they were desert storm vets who
buried EPWs? Who were the four people? You don't know that,
either. Okay, we'll get back to you." (If you wish to do so,
contact the office of the Judge Advocate General at the nearest
US military base to file *your* complaint.)

(Whether or not it was a "war crime" would depend on whether or not
a war crimes tribunal were to be convened and if the tribunal
defined it as such - assuming that the events actually occured. If
the events actually occured, they would be violations of the Geneva
and Hague Conventions regarding the treatment of prisoners, but this
is not the same as being war crimes.)

Absolutely no evidence has been offered that the events alleged in the
original post actually occurred. If you have some evidence, complain -
that is your duty. But if you have no evidence, don't waste the
bandwidth or the time of the JAG.
******************************************************************************
Renegade academician. They're a dangerous breed when they go feral,
academics are...a chemist, too.
		    -(James P. Blaylock in "Lord Kelvin's Machine")

My organization hasn't agreed with any of my opinions so far, and
I doubt they'll start now.

Stanley "Ya nee speon" Roberts

Newsgroups: alt.desert-storm