Rights groups say detainee abuse is common in Iraqi
prisons
By Jeffrey Fleishman and Asmaa Waguih
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Posted on Mon, Jun. 20, 2005

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/nation/11938786.htm

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The public war on the Iraqi insurgency
has led to an atmosphere of hidden brutalities,
including abuse and torture, carried out against
detainees by the nation's special security forces,
according to defense lawyers, international
organizations and Iraq's federal Human Rights
Ministry.

Up to 60 percent of the estimated 12,000 detainees in
the country's prisons and military compounds face
intimidation, light beatings or more intense torture
that leads to scars, broken bones and sometimes death,
said Saad Sultan, head of a board overseeing the
treatment of prisoners at the Human Rights Ministry.

He added that police and security forces attached to
the Iraqi Interior Ministry are responsible for most
violations.

The units have used tactics reminiscent of Saddam
Hussein's secret intelligence squads, according to
abuses cataloged by the ministry and independent human
rights groups and lawyers.

"We've documented a lot of torture cases," said
Sultan, whose committee is pushing for wider access to
Iraq-run prisons across the nation.

"There are beatings, punching, electric shocks to the
body including sensitive areas, hanging prisoners
upside down and beating them and dragging them on the
ground. ... Many police officers come from a culture
of torture from their experiences over the last 35
years. Most of them worked during Saddam's regime."

The ordeal described by Hussam Guheithi is similar to
many cases. When Iraqi National Guardsmen raided his
home last month, the 35-year-old Sunni Muslim imam
said they lashed him with cables, broke his nose and
promised to soak their uniforms with his blood.

He was blindfolded and driven to a military base where
he was interrogated and beaten until the soldiers were
satisfied that he wasn't an extremist.

At the end of the nine days, Guheithi said, the
guardsmen told him, "You have to bear with us. You
know the situation now. We're trying to find
terrorists."

The federal Interior Ministry, responsible for the
nation's internal security, acknowledges cases of
mistreatment but denies torture is common.

Interior Minister Baqir Solagh Jabur is a Shiite
Muslim, and some Sunni Muslim tribal leaders and
politicians have accused the ministry of unfairly
targeting Sunnis, who comprise the bulk of the
insurgency.

"There are no official accusations that the ministry's
forces are carrying out widespread abuse and torture
of detainees," said Col. Adnan Joubouri, a ministry
spokesman. "There was some abuse of authority, and
those officials responsible are being punished."

U.S. officials, whose image on detainment has already
been tarnished by the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu
Ghraib, say they are troubled about torture arising
from security and police forces in the new Iraq
government.

They worry that mistreatment by Iraqi police and
national guardsmen, thousands of whom were trained by
American instructors who sought to steer the
departments away from Saddam's corrupt legacy, may be
viewed as an extension of Abu Ghraib.

"We understand, and we hear that (torture) is
potentially happening and this is an issue we are
constantly talking about," said a senior U.S. military
official in Baghdad. "I think this is an issue no one
can afford to ignore."

Stories of torture and abuse against suspected Shiite
and Sunni criminals and rebels are unfolding against a
relentless insurgency that has Iraqi forces frustrated
over their inability to stop car bombs and ambushes
that have killed more than 1,000 people in recent
weeks.

Rising crime, a shaky court system, a still-unwritten
constitution to define civil rights and an
underequipped interior ministry pursuing well-armed
rebel networks has made human rights less of an
immediate concern for Iraqis than bringing order to
the nation, according to Iraqi and U.S. officials.

Enduring more than two years of violence since the
U.S.-led invasion, many Iraqis favor tougher measures
to end the unrest.

The death penalty was recently reinstated, and for
much of the country there is an unspoken acceptance,
often rooted in the harsh ways of tribal justice, that
intimidation and torture serve a purpose.

Such attitudes are complicated by growing sectarian
strains between Shiite Muslims and Sunni Muslims.

The minority Sunnis comprised the core of Saddam's
Baath Party and controlled the country. The new Iraqi
government is dominated by the majority population of
Shiites.

Both sides blame each other for the increased
bloodshed.




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