The hijacking of the TWA Boeing aircraft: hostages released under the auspices of the ICRC
On 14 June an aircraft belonging to the American airline TWA was hijacked after taking off from Athens airport for Rome. After it had landed twice (once in Beirut and once in Algiers) on 14 and 15 June, the Algerian and American authorities, with the agreement of the hijackers, requested the ICRC to intervene.
A team of six ICRC delegates left Geneva for Algiers where they were allowed to board the aircraft and speak to the passengers and the hijackers. They obtained the release of three hostages. The ICRC was not involved in the negotiations: the conditions for its intervention were not met, in particular that of being the sole intermediary between the parties concerned. But it stated its willing-
IRAN
ness to help speed up the release of the hostages on agreement had been reached between the parties.
In Beirut, where the aircraft had been immobilized, dur- ing the night of 25 to 26 June, a delegate and a doctor visited the 37 passengers and three crew members who were still being held hostage. They interviewed them without witnesses and registered their identities. The registration cards were sent to the American Red Cross to be forwarded to the hostages' families.
Finally, on 30 June, with the agreement of the parties concerned, and of Mr. Nabih Berri, the ICRC organized the transfer of the 39 passengers and crew members (one of the passengers had been released in the meantime at the request of the ICRC) from Beirut to Damascus in 12 vehicles. In the Syrian capital the released hostages were handed over to the Syrian authorities and to American representatives on the spot before being repatriated.
IRAQ: the Gulf War in its fifth year
Iran: the ICRC unable to discharge its mandate
Since the events which occurred during a visit to Gorgan camp in October 1984, the ICRC is no longer in a posi- tion to discharge its mandate in favour of some 50,000 Iraqi prisoners of war who are being held in Iran. However, the ICRC still has an office in Tehran to handle the activities of the Central Tracing Agency (see the chap- ter on the Central Tracing Agency).
Taking the war to the cities: escalation of violence
In 1985 the ICRC made numerous representations and repeated appeals aimed at getting both parties to cease the bombing and shelling which was taking such a heavy toll of civilians.
Iraq: visits to 10,000 Iranian POWs
Mosul I, Mosul II, Mosul III, Mosul IV, Anbar, Ramadi I, Ramadi II, Ramadi III, Salahuddin: nine camps hold a total of 9,847 POWs.
Throughout the year, 112 visits were made to these nine camps and to four hospitals, including 33 visits by the Central Tracing Agency and by medical delegates, and 25 visits by the Mixed Medical Commission (see paragraph below).
The purpose of these visits, in accordance with the Third Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, was:
to register the POWs;
to take note of and, if necessary, improve condi- tions of internment;
to interview the POWs without witnesses.
Repatriation of prisoners of war
At the beginning of the year, a Mixed Medical Commis- sion, consisting of one Iraqi doctor and two ICRC doc- tors, submitted to the Iraqi authorities details of more than one hundred sick or wounded Iranian POWs who
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Article 109
Third Geneva Convention
...
Parties to the conflict are bound to send back to their own country, regardless of number or rank, seriously wounded and seriously sick prisoners of war, after having cared for them until they are fit to travel..."
Article 110
"The following shall be repatriated direct: ....wounded and sick....
If no special agreements are concluded between the Par- ties to the conflict concerned, to determine the cases of disablement or sickness entailing direct repatriation or accomodation in a neutral country, such cases shall be settled in accordance with the principles laid down in the Model Agreement and in the Regulations concerning Mixed Medical Commissions annexed to the present Convention."
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met the conditions for repatriation set out in the Third Geneva Convention.
After 119 cases had been approved, Iraq requested the ICRC to organize their repatriation, as well as that of 55 other POWs captured in January and of 17 elderly POWs.
Six further operations were organized by the ICRC in May, July, August, September, October and November along the same lines: accompanied by ICRC delegates and doctors, prisoners were flown from Baghdad to Ankara (Turkey) and from there to Tehran on another air- craft with other delegates. During each operation the medical personnel and facilities necessary for transferring the prisoners to Ankara airport were supplied by the Tur- kish authorities and the Turkish Red Crescent.
Of the 119 cases approved, two POWs died before repatriation.
Through the intermediary of the Turkish Red Crescent but without the participation of the ICRC, Iran also repatriated 101 Iraqi prisoners, many of whom figured on a list drawn up previously by a Mixed Medical Com- mission.
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