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Danes protest capital punishment in Iraq

Posted by Qasrani (Guest) - Wednesday, August 11 2004, 1:24:05 (CEST)
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Danes protest capital punishment in Iraq

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By CHRISTIAN WIENBERG

Aug. 10, 2004 | COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- In a potential rift, Danish troops in Iraq have stopped handing over prisoners to British commanding forces because the Iraqi government reinstated capital punishment, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

Denmark -- like Britain -- is obliged under the European Convention on Human Rights not to extradite prisoners who could face the death penalty, which is banned in the European Union. But Britain insisted Tuesday that European human rights conventions don't apply in Iraq, and that detainees must be remitted to the Iraqis.

For now, Danish troops, who operate in southern Iraq under British authority, have an informal agreement that prisoners won't be handed over to the Iraqis without Danish consent, Defense Ministry spokesman Jakob Winther said. Until that agreement becomes official, Danes will not hand over suspects they apprehend.

"We wish to know for certain that people in our custody won't be handed over to face the death penalty," Danish Defense Minister Soeren Gade said late Monday in Washington, where he met with U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to discuss Denmark's participation in peacekeeping missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The defense spokesman said an explicit agreement will most likely be sorted out soon. There was no immediate comment on Denmark's request from the British Foreign Office, however.

Britain's Ministry of Defense said that because its troops mostly patrol jointly with Iraqi police, arrested suspects usually went automatically into Iraqi custody. But in some cases, British soldiers on their own arrest suspects and must hand them over -- despite the reinstatement of capital punishment.

"We are apprehending these suspects of a criminal offense in Iraq in support of the Iraqi security forces and Iraqi efforts to secure law and order," the ministry said in a statement. "There will be situations in which we have no choice but to hand over detainees into the Iraqi criminal justice system."

The issue is currently under scrutiny in Britain's High Court, where the families of six Iraqis allegedly slain by British troops are seeking an independent investigation.

The families' lawyers say the human rights convention, which guarantees the right to life and bars torture or degrading treatment, should apply. Lawyers for the government are arguing it does not apply outside Europe.

Denmark's 496 soldiers serve in Basra and nearby Qurnah in British-controlled southern Iraq.

Danish troops have not detained any Iraqis since the Iraqi government took charge, June 28. And because the Danes usually arrest only one or two Iraqis per month in the relatively peaceful southern part of the country, it will not be a problem for Danish soldiers to detain potential prisoners themselves until an agreement with the British is sorted out, Winther, the spokesman, said.

The Iraqi government on Sunday reinstated capital punishment for people guilty of murder, endangering national security and distributing drugs, saying the death penalty was necessary to help put down the country's growing insurgency.

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