The Red Cross has asked to see Saddam Hussein and check on the conditions under which he is being held:

A Red Cross spokesman, Florian Westphal, would not comment directly on Rumsfeld's comments. But he said Saddam "was the commander in chief of the Iraqi army, which seems to indicate that he should at least be presumed a POW." "We expect any state bound by the Geneva Conventions to live up to its commitments," he told The Associated Press.

....Westphal said while the Geneva Conventions allow captors to interrogate POWs, the prisoners do not have to answer questions. They are only obliged to give the information familiar from movies - name, rank and serial number.

Westphal said nothing in the Geneva Conventions stops POWs from being tried for war crimes or regular offenses, although they cannot be charged simply for taking up arms against the enemy.

Westphal would not comment on whether the U.S. authorities had violated the Geneva Conventions in transmitting video images of an unshaven Saddam being examined by a doctor shortly after his capture.

Article 13 of the 1949 Conventions, which set basic standards in armed conflict, says that prisoners should be treated humanely and should "at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity."