Human rights group Amnesty International released a report yesterday claiming detainees in Iraq are still being tortured by their captors despite negative attention generated by the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal.
The report lists allegations from former detainees who claim 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 said researchers conducted interviews in Jordan and Iraq with former detainees, relatives of current detainees and lawyers involved in detainees' cases in Iraq.
PHOTO: AFP
The interviews were conducted starting last year and they ran into this year, London-based Amnesty said.
A US military detention mission spokesman responded to the report by saying that all detainees are treated according to international conventions and Iraqi law.
"Some of the detainees have been held for over two years without any effective remedy or recourse," Amnesty said in the report. "Others have been released without explanation or apology or reparation after months in detention, victims of a system that is arbitrary and a recipe for abuse."
But the US military said each detainee is given a form explaining the reasons for their imprisonment and their files are reviewed every 90 to 120 days, US detention command spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Guy Rudisill said in an email.
The Amnesty report called for an overhaul of the way detainees are treated by British, US and Iraqi authorities. In particular, Amnesty International wants those who detain people in Iraq to ensure inmates are given due process -- a lawyer and an appearance before an impartial court -- and to fully investigate any abuse allegations.
"Since Abu Ghraib, the multinational force -- and the United States in particular -- promised they would put safeguards in place," Amnesty spokeswoman Nicole Choueiry said. "But the [lack of] legal safeguards are still an obstacle to detainees getting and enjoying their human rights."
The report, quoting a US military Web site, said that figures compiled in November showed 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.
Notorious photographs from 2003 showing Iraqi inmates being abused led to the convictions of several US soldiers and major inquiries by US authorities into how prisoners are treated.
The Amnesty report urges the British and US governments to publicly declare 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.
Britain's Defense Ministry said allegations of wrongdoing have always been taken seriously, and that a police investigation is initiated when there are any grounds that a criminal act might have occurred. It also said that international observers are invited into their detention centers -- a policy Amnesty said should be standard for all nations holding prisoners.
"The International Committee for the Red Cross are informed when we intern an individual, usually immediately, but always within 24 hours. They are fully aware of who we hold at our detention facility. The individual's family is also informed," a spokeswoman for the ministry said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.
Britain has 42 people in custody in one facility, she said, and "we have no interest in interning individuals in Iraq other than to protect Iraqi security personnel and civilians, and British servicemen and women, from attack."
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in