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Troops have
been abusing Iraqis for a year, atleast 4 died: Amnesty
At least four Iraqi detainees have died in British custody in the past year,
one as a result of torture, says the human rights group Amnesty International,
while the CIA admits it is investigating the death of a prisoner under
interrogation.
As the scandal over the abuses at Abu Ghraib jail, near Baghdad, widened,
President George Bush pointedly called his Secretary of Defence, Donald
Rumsfeld, to ensure that "those responsible for these shameful, appalling acts"
are held "fully accountable".
In Australia, the Federal Opposition condemned the Government for an "immoral
disinterest" in the treatment of Iraqi prisoners and warned it had a legal
responsibility to them.
A CIA officer told the Herald that
"one prisoner . . . who we were talking to
did die". And the former US officer responsible for the jail, Brigadier-General
Janis Karpinski, reiterated that the cell blocks where the abuses took place
were under the control of military intelligence when the prisoners were
subjected to beating, rape, sexually humiliation and torture.
Six military police officers photographed abusing prisoners are facing
criminal action.
General Karpinski has been accused of failing to prevent the MPs from abusing
prisoners, but told the US ABC network they were given separate instructions by
US intelligence officers "on what they needed to do".
She said the Military Intelligence Brigade commander, whom she did not name,
told her, "The MPs are doing a great job in there. They're getting more
information."
Amnesty issued a disturbing report on Iraq last month detailing allegations
of torture and ill-treatment by US and British forces in Iraq that are
remarkably similar to the evidence that has now surfaced. But its report
indicates that the abuses began when US- led coalition forces gained control of
Iraq in April last year and took place throughout the country.
The report found at least four detainees have died in British military
custody, and in one case the cause of death was torture. The report referred to
a hearing in February into the death of an Iraqi at a detention centre in
Nasiriyah, where a former US marine testified it was common practice
"to kick
and punch prisoners who did not co-operate, and even some who did".
That hearing involved the death of a former Baath party official who was
beaten and choked by a US marine reservist.
The Amnesty report also noted that thousands of Iraqis had been arrested
without charge and many held indefinitely as "suspected terrorists" or
"security" detainees.
Amnesty repeated its call for an independent inquiry, saying the abuses were
more widespread than acknowledged and included the still unexplained deaths of
two prisoners under interrogation in Afghanistan.
"The problem seems to extend beyond one prison and one theatre," said its
Washington spokesman, Alistair Hodgett.
However, the Pentagon and the Bush Administration are resisting any calls for
an independent investigation into its detention or interrogation practices in
Iraq and Afghanistan, saying a high-level military review is already underway.
"I think at this point there's no reason to suspect that the army's not
capable of inspecting itself", Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt said in Baghdad
yesterday.
Military lawyers in Washington are sceptical.
"All of this is going to have
to be run to ground," said Eugene Fidell, of the National Institute of Military
Justice.
"The lesson is, make yourself comfortable, because this is going to be a long
and interesting process."
A United Nations human rights investigator has called for an independent
inquiry into the impact on civilians of the US military's month-long siege of
Falluja.
There were credible claims that US-led forces in Iraq
"have been guilty of
serious breaches of international humanitarian and human rights law in Falluja
in recent weeks", the UN special rapporteur Paul Hunt said on Monday.
source: Sydney Morning Herald - May 05, 2004 |
