Iraqi jail torture 'increasing'
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Monday 06 March 2006 2:52 AM GMT
The US is to expand prison capacity in Iraq
Amnesty International has claimed that use of torture by US-trained
security forces in Iraq is increasing and that thousands of prisoners
are being denied basic human rights.
In a report published on Monday the human rights group suggests that
many detainees being held by the US-led multinational force (MNF) are
trapped in a system of arbitrary detention with some being held without
being charged for more than two years.
The report, entitled Beyond Abu Ghraib: Detention and torture in Iraq,
also says there is mounting evidence of torture by Iraqi security
forces, working alongside the MNF, including the so-called Wolf Brigade
that reports to the Iraqi interior ministry.
The report lists allegations from former detainees who claim that they
were beaten with plastic cables, given electric shocks and made to stand
in a flooded room as an electrical current was passed through the water.
Amnesty also cited incidents when prisoners have died in custody and the
deaths have yet to be fully investigated. The group said that
investigations carried out by US and UK authorities into their own
forces focused on junior military personnel.
Hassiba Hadj-Sahraoui, the deputy director of Amnesty's Middle East
programme, said: "It is high time for all parties to the conflict to
start observing the laws to which they have been and remain legally bound."
Amnesty said researchers conducted interviews in Jordan and Iraq with
former detainees, relatives of current detainees and lawyers involved in
detainees' cases in Iraq.
Expansion planned
A US military detention mission spokesman responded to the report by
saying that all detainees are treated according to international
conventions and Iraqi law.
Lieutenant-Colonel Guy Rudisill said each detainee is given a form
explaining the reasons for their imprisonment and their files are
reviewed every 90 to 120 days.
The Amnesty report, quoting a US military website, said that figures
compiled in November showed that the number of detainees in coalition
military prisons in Iraq was 14,000. Last year, the US military said it
planned to spend about US$50 million to expand prison capacity to hold
up to 16,000 people.
"It is high time for all parties to the conflict to start observing the
laws to which they have been and remain legally bound"
Amnesty International
Notorious photographs from 2003 showing Iraqi inmates being abused led
to the convictions of several US soldiers and inquiries by US
authorities into how prisoners are treated.
The Amnesty report urges the British and US governments to declare
publicly that torture and degrading treatment of prisoners will not be
tolerated, to end indefinite internment of people in Iraq and to conduct
impartial, transparent investigations of those accused of mistreating
detainees.
Aljazeera + Agencies
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