Nicaragua condemned on Saturday US soldiers violated the human rights of Iraqi prisoners, demanding severe punishment for the appalling abuse.

These soldiers' activities contravened the 1949 Geneva Conventions, Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Norman Caldera Cardenal told the press.

The Geneva Conventions, commonly known as the laws of war, sets out an internationally binding set of rules to guarantee minimum standards of treatment for prisoners of war and other detainees.

Cardenal also noted that US President Bush had said the treatment against Iraqi prisoners is unacceptable and the hand of justice must fall with all the weigh of the laws over the guilty soldiers.

The Nicaraguan government will send a "note" on this issue to the US government on Monday, he added.

Nicaraguans were indignant on Friday as they saw the images of Iraqi prisoners being tortured and subjected to acts of cruelty and obscenity by the US soldiers.

Source: Xinhua