"We were stripped naked for long times, may be weeks," an Iraqi detainee

By Numir El-Higazi & Samir Haddad, IOL Correspondents

BAGHDAD, May 14 (IslamOnline.net) – Iraqi detainees, released Friday, May 14, from the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, urged issuing an international arrest warrant for U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his trial over their abuse.

"In the name of all detainees, I call for issuing an international arrest warrant against Rumsfeld in any country he goes for the actions of his troops," Ghassan Abdel-Hakim told IslamOnline.net after his son's release.

"Rumsfeld should stand trial as a war criminal for his violation of international laws and the Fourth Geneva convention" on the treatment of PoWs, said Abdul-Majid Hamad, a 73-year-old Iraqi lawyer and a father of two sons who were detained by American forces in July last year.

"My sons were mercilessly mistreated in detention. They were about to breathe their last after they were denied food and water for 27 hours," he added.

Hamad asked for taking Rumsfeld to the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague for "being the first one responsible for the horrendous torture and abuse of Iraqi detainees".

"An arrest warrant should be issued to all airports, except in the United States and Britain ," he said, excluding the two war allies.

Rumsfeld paid a surprise visit to Iraq to boost morale amid the damaging abuse scandal which has deeply embarrassed the U.S. administration.

Hundreds of prisoners lined up behind concertina wire inside their tent camps as he passed through Camp Ganci at Abu Ghraib in a hulking Rhino Runner armored bus.

Some gave the secretary a thumbs down, one group held a tattered Iraqi flag and others yelled.

Rumsfeld had earlier offered his "deepest apology" and took responsibility for the abuse scandal in a grilling Congress hearing Friday, May 7.

Admitting he had seen more shocking images and videos that are being kept from the public, the defense secretary remained adamant not to step down.

More Counts Of Abuse

Other counts of torture surfaced at the infamous U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad , as some 315 detainees were also released and told stories of psychological and physical abuse.

"We were stripped naked for long times, may be weeks, and suffered taunts during the interrogation," said Nagm Abdel-Hussein, 45, after his release.

Hussein, detained with his son in April, said one of the female U.S. soldiers held a stash tied to another detainee’s penis.

"She pulled him before the Iraqi female detainees and beat him hard. Others were also sexually abused before my very eyes," he recounted.

One detainee said two American soldiers had sex in front of him in the complex's hospital wing and another said he saw wires attached to the tongue and genitals of a cousin who was also being held.

"They kept me in solitary confinement for six days. They hung me by my hands from the wall for five hours," said Abu Mustafa, 24, after a 10-month detention.

Indiscrimination

The detainees said that the U.S. forces tortured and abused Iraqis indiscriminately, regardless of their age or sect – much to the growing anti-American sentiments among ordinary people of the occupied country.

"They hit my head in the wall, and I could not do anything to stop the bleeding of my covered head with my tied hands," said Ali Mohamed, a Shiite from the southern province of Dhi Qar .

"The American investigators forced me to duck across the jail. I was kicked and beaten by the soldiers until I fainted," Mohamed recalled.

"I did not sleep for three long days. And the fourth day they pulled me to ride a vehicle before dumping me at a roadside in the early morning," the Iraqi young man recounted.

A U.S. soldier making her presence in most of the Iraqi abuse photos said she was "instructed" by her commanders to pose for photographs with naked Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison.

An overwhelming majority of 24,885 people who participated in an IslamOnline.net poll released on May 12 called for the trial of Rumsfeld over the torture and abuse scenes.

Also, at least 275,000 Americans have signed a petition championed by Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry demanding Rumsfeld's resignation over the scandal.

The U.S. military is to hold its first court martial next week of a U.S. soldier over the abuse.

Earlier this week it announced two more to come, with dates to be announced later.