Pentagon Against Plan to Alter Geneva Conventions

Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger and the Joint Chiefs of Staff have recommended that the United States reject changes in the 1949 Geneva Conventions governing war prisoners because the revisions could be read as applying to national liberation movements and terrorists, officials said today.

The revisions, signed by Carter Administration officials but never submitted to the Senate for ratification, are undergoing a final review by the State Department, the officials said.

“The secretary and the Joint Chiefs have notified the secretary of state of our position,” said a Pentagon official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“We are essentially opposed to Protocol I,” the official said. “Basically, we think it abets terrorism.”

The proposed revisions of the 1949 Geneva Conventions were negotiated under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross from 1974 to 1977.

The revisions were divided into two so-called protocols--the first dealing with international armed conflicts and the second with non-international conflicts.

More than 100 nations have signed the protocols, but only about 40 have formally ratified them. Only formal ratification gives the treaty actual legal force.

As outlined today by Pentagon sources, the first set of protocols is particularly worrisome because the language defining combat and soldiers is so vague that distinctions between guerrillas and regular soldiers are blurred.

As a result, guerrillas could claim the same protection granted regular prisoners of war and thus avoid prosecution under criminal statutes for what might otherwise be considered terrorist acts, the sources said.