Red Cross wants to visit Saddam
Geneva Conventions mandate Red Cross visits to POWs
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Saddam Hussein, shown shortly after his capture December 13.
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(CNN) -- More than two months since Saddam Hussein's capture, the U.S.-led coalition still has not allowed the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit him.
ICRC spokesman Florian Westphal said Saturday the agency hopes to set a date for a visit soon.
When asked why the visit is taking so long to arrange, Westphal said, "I'm not sure we're the right people to answer that question."
The Red Cross has been working with the U.S.-led coalition to arrange a visit with Saddam since late December. The coalition has told the group it will be allowed to visit the deposed leader.
"We are certainly in principle ready to carry out this first visit, and there have been a number of conversations going on with U.S.-led authorities in Iraq to find out how best to do this," Westphal said, speaking to CNN from Geneva, Switzerland, where the agency is based.
Coalition officials were not immediately available for comment.
Since U.S. soldiers found Saddam in an underground hiding place near Tikrit on December 13, the coalition has held the former Iraqi dictator at an undisclosed location. In January, the Pentagon classified Saddam as an enemy prisoner of war.
The Geneva Conventions mandate Red Cross visits to prisoners of war, and the agency often makes such visits to independently verify their conditions in confinement.
Last month, the Red Cross confirmed that its representatives have visited all the other high-level detainees held by the United States in Iraq. Westphal said the Red Cross has had access to thousands of POWs and civilians since the start of the war last spring.
One of the problems the ICRC faces has been security and reduction of staff.
Since a car bomb attack at ICRC headquarters in Baghdad last October, the agency has had to close offices in Baghdad and Basra and carry on work with a smaller international staff -- "which made it difficult for us to take on these visits."
Red Cross officials have shuttled in and out of Iraq from Amman, Jordan, for visits. Westphal said the Red Cross still provides emergency response, pointing to its presence in the aftermath of recent deadly attacks in Erbil, Iskandariyah and Baghdad.
