NationStates Jolt Archive


Iraqi prisoners found tortured, starving and paralysed

Nadkor
15-11-2005, 23:06
BBC News (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4440134.stm)

Iraq's government says it has begun an investigation into the alleged abuse of more than 170 detainees held by Iraqi security forces in Baghdad.

The prisoners, many malnourished and some showing signs of torture, were found when US troops took control of an interior ministry building on Sunday.

The US raid followed repeated enquiries by the parents of a missing teenager.

Iraq's prime minister has promised to find those responsible for any abuse. Most of those held were Sunnis.

'Hard evidence'

The BBC's Caroline Hawley in Baghdad says the discovery will not come as a surprise to many Iraqis.

There have been persistent allegations of abuse by members of the Shia-dominated security forces, she says.

But Sunday's discovery is hard evidence and officials believe it may be the tip of the iceberg.

There are suspicions the building may also have been used as a base for a militia called the Badr Brigade, and that such militias may have infiltrated Iraq's security services, our correspondent adds.

The prison is reported to be in the central Jadiriya district of Baghdad.

Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said he had been told that 173 detainees had been held, that they appeared malnourished, and may have been "subjected to some kind of torture".

He launched an inquiry and said the prisoners had been moved and would be given medical care.

Deputy interior minister Hussein Kamal, who saw some of the abuse victims personally, said: "I've never seen such a situation like this during the past two years in Baghdad, this is the worst.

"I saw signs of physical abuse by brutal beating, one or two detainees were paralysed and some had their skin peeled off various parts of their bodies."

Repeated allegations

The head of Iraq's largest Sunni political party said attempts to raise claims of torture in government detention centres had been rebuffed.

"According to our knowledge, regrettably, all the detainees were Sunnis," Mohsen Abdul-Hamid, head of the Iraqi Islamic Party, told the Associated Press news agency.

"In order to search for a terrorist, they used to detain hundreds of innocent people and torture them brutally."

A US soldier who carried out the raid said: "It's not what we expected at all, we were looking for a 15-year-old boy."

But the BBC's correspondent says the discovery will be embarrassing for the US military, which has been training Iraq's security services.

Human rights group Amnesty International welcomed the investigation but said it should cover other allegations of torture and maltreatment by Iraqi police and security forces belonging to the interior ministry.

The security forces have faced repeated allegations of systematic abuse and torture of detainees, and of extra-judicial killings.

A report by pressure group Human Rights Watch earlier this year said methods used by Iraqi police included beating detainees with cables, hanging them from their wrists for long periods and giving electric shocks to sensitive parts of the body.


Yea, life's much better now Hussein's gone :rolleyes:

/sceptic
Nadkor
15-11-2005, 23:43
Good to see the whole "we really care about freeing the Iraqi people from oppression" thing was a pile of bullshit.

But, then, we knew that.
The blessed Chris
15-11-2005, 23:47
Did we know that statistically Iraq is considerably worse at present than in the last days of Saddam's regime. What a remarkable advertisement for Western Democracy and freedom George W Bush and Tony Blair have contrived to become.:rolleyes:
Psychotic Mongooses
15-11-2005, 23:49
Just saw that on the BBC news there. Sectarian I believe the phrase they used.

At least the US soldiers responded to the repeated claims by the 'missings' families to do something about it.

What does this say about the future of a democratic and free Iraqi society?:(
Pepe Dominguez
15-11-2005, 23:51
Good to see the whole "we really care about freeing the Iraqi people from oppression" thing was a pile of bullshit.

But, then, we knew that.

The article says Iraqi Security was doing the abusing, and that "we" raided the prison they were running.. I don't see how you can say, based on the article, that we don't care about Iraqis. If we didn't, we'd let them keep on with the torture that seems to have happened there, yes?
The Nazz
15-11-2005, 23:57
The article says Iraqi Security was doing the abusing, and that "we" raided the prison they were running.. I don't see how you can say, based on the article, that we don't care about Iraqis. If we didn't, we'd let them keep on with the torture that seems to have happened there, yes?
Yeah but, wasn't one of the post-no-wmd-move-the-goalpost reasons for invading that we needed to stop Saddam from torturing his own people? I mean, we could have kept untold thousands of Iraqis alive, and over 2,000 US soldiers alive if we weren't going to stop the torture. Where's the net gain here? We seem to have traded one madman for an untold number of them.
Nadkor
15-11-2005, 23:58
The article says Iraqi Security was doing the abusing, and that "we" raided the prison they were running.. I don't see how you can say, based on the article, that we don't care about Iraqis. If we didn't, we'd let them keep on with the torture that seems to have happened there, yes?
Not what they were looking for, but that's beside the point.

I was referring more to the many posters on here who continue to spout the rubbish that Iraq is better now for the ordinary people, or who were sucked in by the half-truths of both Bush and Blair.
The blessed Chris
16-11-2005, 00:01
The article says Iraqi Security was doing the abusing, and that "we" raided the prison they were running.. I don't see how you can say, based on the article, that we don't care about Iraqis. If we didn't, we'd let them keep on with the torture that seems to have happened there, yes?

my word, one does contract a cold in winter no...

*cough* ABU GHRAIB *cough*
Pepe Dominguez
16-11-2005, 00:06
Not what they were looking for, but that's beside the point.

I was referring more to the many posters on here who continue to spout the rubbish that Iraq is better now for the ordinary people, or who were sucked in by the half-truths of both Bush and Blair.

Yeah.. I'm not sure how anyone would argue that Iraq is better "now" as in, say, this week.. I think the argument is that Iraq will be better under democratic rule in time. I certainly don't think Iraq is less violent today, even if it is more free politically.. Saddam at least needed a working society and economy, whereas the insurgents there want neither.
The blessed Chris
16-11-2005, 00:10
Yeah.. I'm not sure how anyone would argue that Iraq is better "now" as in, say, this week.. I think the argument is that Iraq will be better under democratic rule in time. I certainly don't think Iraq is less violent today, even if it is more free politically.. Saddam at least needed a working society and economy, whereas the insurgents there want neither.

Why do you cling to democracy? It is a western concept, for application in a western context, why impose it upon nations that prefer, and crave more efficient, authoritative administration?

Because it is right? Who says so? The Bible? It does not.... but US politicians do, who are evidently moral fortresses of unsurpassable intellect and integrity...
Serapindal
16-11-2005, 01:00
The U.S.A. wasn't torturing them.

But however, I still hope that we find those responsible, and justly punish them. We cannot tolerate torture and human-rights abuses, as well as oppression, even if it comes from our "allies." (Israel comes to mind.)

We need the moral highground, because we're a democratic society. It's essiential for public support, and at this point of time, we NEED all the public support we can get.
Nadkor
16-11-2005, 01:24
The U.S.A. wasn't torturing them.
Who said you were?

Guilty conscience? ;)
Wynspire XIV
16-11-2005, 01:31
Personally I have to say that I don't care about Iraq. I'd rather kill them all take their oil and get over with it because that's what we're after there for anyways, right?
:) :sniper:
Rotovia-
16-11-2005, 01:44
I think we can safely say the Iraqis like to tortured, kill & brutalize their own people. At least under Suddam we didn't have blood on our hands...
Gravlen
16-11-2005, 02:29
I think we can safely say the Iraqis like to tortured, kill & brutalize their own people. At least under Suddam we didn't have blood on our hands...

No blood on the hands, no, only on the weapons that were sold to Saddam in the eighties...