The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #71672 Message #1228503
Posted By: freda underhill
18-Jul-04 - 07:31 PM
Thread Name: BS: New Iraqi Head of Govt Murders Prisoners
Subject: RE: BS: New Iraqi Head of Govt Murders Prisoners
Red Cross urged to investigate Allawi claims; By Tom Allard, Foreign Affairs Reporter; July 19, 2004;http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/18/1090089035896.html
The former British foreign secretary, Robin Cook, has urged the International Committee for the Red Cross to investigate witness claims that the new Iraqi prime minister, Iyad Allawi, shot dead six insurgents last month. Revelations of the accounts of the killings by chief Herald correspondent Paul McGeough at the weekend and the refusal of US authorities to deny them outright sparked concerns around the world.
........"These are dreadful allegations. It is vital that they are cleared up one way or another, and that needs an independent inquiry," Mr Cook, who quit the Blair cabinet over the Iraq war, told the British newspaper the Sunday Herald. "An international body such as the Red Cross would be best able to give authority to the investigation that the situation now demands." International Red Cross officials in Baghdad told the Herald last week they were still negotiating protocols with the new government to visit Iraqi-run jails. So far their officials had clearance only to visit US-run prisons.......
Labor's Defence spokesman, Kim Beazley, cautioned that the Middle East was a "giant bazaar of rumours". "You'd have thought if there's an allegation in this country, two anonymous sources would be regarded as rather thin to go to print," he told Channel Nine's Sunday program. "But this is an incredibly serious allegation. You couldn't just let it lie."
Mr Beazley said Dr Allawi had "hard elements" in his past - a reference to allegations he was an assassin for Saddam Hussein when he was in the Baath party and involved in unsavoury acts after he defected in the 1970s.
Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, said: "Paul McGeough is a credible journalist ... I don't think therefore we can simply brush it to one side."
The Greens leader Bob Brown also hailed McGeough's credentials and called the claims "credible" and "stunning". "How long can Australian troops remain at Allawi's service? Allawi's record is chilling and was well-known to both Prime Minister Howard and President Bush."