Saddam Speaks to Red Cross, Writes Family

[kentuck]

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-red-cross-saddam,0,3338188.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

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Doumani refused to disclose where Saddam was being held, but Iraqi Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin said Monday the former president is being held at Camp Cropper at Baghdad International Airport. Amin said Saddam was in good health, and prison doctors were checking him twice a day.

Doumani stressed that even though the ICRC delegation included a doctor, it was the responsibility of the detaining authority -- in this case the United States -- to provide medical care to Saddam and other detainees.

"The appropriate medical care and followup is to be provided by the detaining authority," Doumani said.

ICRC delegates also spent a week last month visiting detainees at Camp Bucca near Umm Qasr in southern Iraq, where 2,500 Iraqis are being held. Soon they will return to Abu Ghraib, the largest prison, for the next regular visit.