Polish officials on Friday strongly denied the possibility their troops mistreated Iraqi prisoners, saying there was no substance to the claim that surfaced in the US investigation of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison.
Major General Mieczyslaw Bieniek, the commander of the Polish-led multinational force in Iraq, said there was no truth to the allegation that Polish troops had injured two Iraqi prisoners, stressing that conditions at a Polish-run detention center were both legal and humane.
Charges of abuse are "total garbage," Bieniek said in an interview from Iraq on TVN24, an all-news station. "I am deeply outraged."
Still, he said, the allegations would not produce a rift in the coalition, and Poland would continue its command of the 6,200-soldier force as usual.
Bieniek stressed that an internal army investigation had turned up no cases of abuse. That investigation was launched as a precaution after the reports of US abuse at Abu Ghraib surfaced.
Records of interviews by Army Criminal Investigation Division agents from the Abu Ghraib investigation include new allegations that coalition forces had beaten prisoners before turning them over to US forces.
Sergeant Antonio Monserrate, an Army interrogator, told investigators that two captives had been "injured by the Polish Army." Monserrate referred to the inmates by their prison identification numbers but did not provide any further details.
That report sparked anger in military circles and among regular Poles -- both against the Associated Press (AP) for reporting the allegations and against the US more generally.
Retired soldier Kazimierz Nagorka, for example, called the AP to express his outrage.
"My whole life I have been very pro-American, but now I doubt my feelings," the 50-year-old said. "How can you say such things? Now the world falsely believes that we Poles do the same horrible things that Americans and others do."
Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka, who worked for six months in Iraq under US administrator Paul Bremer to revive the nation's economy, said he never saw any signs of prisoner mistreatment by Polish troops.
"This could not have happened," Belka said.
Bieniek described the Polish-run detention center in Iraq -- located in an air-conditioned tent in Hillah -- as an unlikely site for abuse. The center only holds Iraqi prisoners for up to 72 hours before they are either released or handed over to Iraqi police or US authorities -- and Bieniek stressed that Polish troops never carry out interrogations.
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