The World - News from Aug. 23, 1989

The Red Cross and the Swiss government appealed for an end to violations of the Geneva Conventions requiring humane treatment of prisoners of war and civilians under military occupation. Cornelio Sommaruga, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, appeared to direct his remarks mainly at Iran and Iraq, who are still holding POWs despite a cease-fire in the Persian Gulf War a year ago. “Tens of thousands of prisoners of war wait in camps. Thousands, some after years of internment, are wounded or sick. They have become hostages of international negotiations,” he said at a ceremony in Bern, Switzerland, to mark the signing of the first Geneva Convention in 1864.