British Defense Chief Calls For Review of Geneva Conventions
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LONDON (AP) – Britain’s Defense Secretary called Monday for a review of the Geneva Conventions, saying international rules of war needed to be revamped to reflect the threats of global terrorism.
John Reid said the potential for groups or countries to develop or acquire weapons of mass destruction should lead to a new debate about whether pre-emptive strikes should be allowed under the rules of war.
“The laws of the 20th century placed constraints on us all which enhanced peace and protected liberty,” Reid told an audience at the Royal United Services Institute, a security and defense think-tank in London. “We must ask ourselves whether, as the new century begins, they will do the same.”
He suggested the Geneva Conventions _ which date to 1949 _ may need to be revised.
The Geneva Conventions set standards for conduct during times of war including the treatment of prisoners and protection of civilians and journalists. They ban torture, rape, mutilation, slavery, genocide and a host of other war crimes in all conflicts. Violations are a punishable criminal offense under the national laws of countries that have signed the conventions.
Reid did not specify what changes he thought should be made to the Geneva Conventions or other international rules of war.
Britain has been the strongest ally of the United States in its so-called war on terrorism, supplying thousands of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
A series of leaked secret memos last year indicated that in the run-up to war in Iraq, Prime Minister Tony Blair was determined to participate in the invasion, even though his government thought the pre-emptive attack may have been illegal under international law.
The U.S. and its allies never found the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that the countries said justified the invasion.
Blair also has defended the U.S. holding without charge of 500 men accused of links to Afghanistan’s Taliban or the al-Qaida terror network at the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The men, some held without charge for four years, are classified as “enemy combatants,” which accords them fewer legal protections than prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions.
