It's an interesting (albeit cold) exercise to compare the image repair problem posed by this accusation -- that US troops and coalition forces are violating the Geneva Conventions by blocking delivery of food and water to civilians in insurgent-held towns in Iraq -- with the image repair demands of US actions at Guantanamo and other detention centers.
This is an easier issue to respond to. US and coalition forces aren't in complete control of the situation here. Insurgents are also accountable for having based their operations in a civilian settlement and (it seems) failed to provide civilians with either alternative sources of food and water or with avenues of escape. In addition, as the US military spokesman quoted in the BBC report implies, it's not humane to encourage civilians to stay in a place that's about to come under military attack. These factors don't make what amounts to a siege any less brutal for the people involved, but they do give US forces a leg to stand on in explaining their actions.
By contrast, there are no such mitigating factors to explain US treatment of prisoners at detention centers. Those are situations where US authorities are in complete control. When US personnel abuse or degrade prisoners, it appears (and in my opinion, is) just sadistic. Your only hope for image repair lies in either being able to prove the abuse allegations are false, or in expressing regret for the abuses and showing you've taken steps to prevent anything like them from happening again.
Two other communication points come to mind in reading about Ziegler's press conference. 1) This is the kind of situation where a good pre-existing audience relationship makes all the difference in your outcomes. When people are confident that you're basically decent and responsible, they'll give you some benefit of the doubt when an accusation like this arises. The US doesn't seem to enjoy that kind of confidence among members of the international community right now. 2) Like the Abu Ghraib photos, Ziegler's charges may be a bigger news story for international audiences than for Iraqi or Arab publics. If I remember correctly, the fate of civilians was a major theme in Iraqi and regional discussion of the fighting for Fallujah last year. I would guess that most Iraqis and many regional audiences have already formed a judgement of what's going on in the western part of the country.
"US Troops 'Starve Iraqi Citizens'" - BBC News (World Edition), 15 Oct 2005
A senior United Nations official has accused US-led coalition troops of depriving Iraqi civilians of food and water in breach of humanitarian law.
Mr Ziegler said he understood the "military rationale" when confronting insurgents who do not respect "any law of war".
But he insisted that civilians who could not leave besieged cities and towns for whatever reason should not suffer as a result of this strategy.
Lieutenant Colonel Steve Boylan, a US military spokesman, later rejected the accusations.
"Any allegations of us withholding basic needs from the Iraqi people are false," he said.
Even though some supplies had been delayed during fighting, he argued that "all precautions" were being taken to take care of civilians.
"It does not do relief supplies any good if you have them going into a firefight," he said.
Human rights investigator Jean Ziegler said they had driven people out of insurgent strongholds that were about to be attacked by cutting supplies.
Mr Ziegler, a Swiss-born sociologist, said such tactics were in breach of international law.
A US military spokesman in Baghdad denied the allegations.
"A drama is taking place in total silence in Iraq, where the coalition's occupying forces are using hunger and deprivation of water as a weapon of war against the civilian population," Mr Ziegler told a press conference in Geneva.
He said coalition forces were using "starvation of civilians as a method of warfare."
"This is a flagrant violation of international law," he added....
"UN: Coalition Cuts Off Food for Iraqis," by Bradley S. Klapper - AP (Geneva), 15 Oct 2005
A U.N. rights advocate accused U.S.-led coalition troops in Iraq of cutting off food and water to force civilians to flee before launching attacks on insurgent strongholds — a claim the U.S. military flatly denied.
Jean Ziegler, a U.N. expert on food rights, cited reports from private organizations and the media in making the accusations. He said the Geneva Conventions on warfare, which form the basis of international humanitarian law, forbid denying food to civilians....
The 53-nation U.N. Human Rights Commission appoints outside experts who are assigned countries or subjects and are given wide latitude in their reports. Ziegler first was appointed in 2000 and was given a second three-year mandate by the commission in 2003.
Ziegler conceded the U.S. military saves lives by removing civilians from the line of fire.
"I can understand the military rationale, facing such a horrible enemy, this insurgent, who does not respect any law of war," Ziegler said, pointing to the U.S.-led offensives in Fallujah, Samarra and Tal Afar. "But many civilians cannot come out."
Ziegler said he would present a report later this month to the U.N. General Assembly in New York expressing his "outrage" at the alleged practice and calling on countries to condemn it in a resolution. He cannot submit a U.N. resolution himself....
"US Troops Starving Iraqis, Says UN" - Reuters, as posted to Al Jazeera's English-language Web site (Aljazeera.net), 14 Oct 2005
A United Nations human rights investigator has accused the US and British forces in Iraq of breaching international law by depriving civilians of food and water in besieged cities.
But the US military denied the charge and said that while supplies were sometimes disrupted by combat, food was never deliberately withheld....
Ziegler said that he had been in touch with the British authorities on the issue, and "a channel seems to be opening", but that attempts to start a dialogue with the US authorities had been fruitless.
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