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Abu
Ghraib Abuses “Tip of the Iceberg”: HRW
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“It’s now clear that abuse of detainees has happened all over,” Brody said.
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New
York, April 29, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A Human
Rights Watch (HRW) report, coinciding with the anniversary of
revealing the prisoner abuse scandal to the world, said the crimes at
Abu Ghraib are part of a larger pattern of tortures and abuses against
Muslim detainees around the world.
Also
highlighting the same occasion, Amnesty International blasted
Washington for failing to launch an independent probe into the
scandal.
A
year after the revelations of US soldiers’ rampant sexual and
physical abuse of prisoners at the Iraqi jail were leaked
to the media, HRW watchdog said Thursday, April 28, the abuses at
Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison were just the “tip of the iceberg” of
US mistreatment of Muslim prisoners.
HRW
released a summary of evidence of US abuse of detainees in Iraq,
Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well as of the programs of
secret CIA detention, “extraordinary renditions,” and “reverse
renditions.”
“Abu
Ghraib was only the tip of the iceberg,” said Reed Brody, special
counsel for Human Rights Watch, according to the rights’ watchdog
Web site.
“It’s
now clear that abuse of detainees has happened all over -- from
Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay to a lot of third-country dungeons where
the United States has sent prisoners. And probably quite a few other
places we don’t even know about.”
Rejecting
last week’s report by the Army Inspector General which was said to
absolve Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, formerly the top US commander in Iraq,
of responsibility, the group called for the appointment of a special
prosecutor to investigate the culpability of US top brass in cases of
crimes against detainees.
They
included Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld and ex-CIA Director
George Tenet, as well as Sanchez, and Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the former
commander of the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, in cases of crimes
against detainees, according to the group’s Web site.
The
group said 9 detainees were known to have died in US custody in
Afghanistan, while at least 11 Al-Qaeda suspects have also
“disappeared in US custody, with no evidence of where they are held.
Click
to Read HRW Summary…
Abu
Ghraib Failings
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Four top US Army officers, including Sanchez, have been cleared of any wrongdoing in the prisoner abuse scandal.
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The
probe investigation was echoed by Amnesty International which blasted
the US for failing to launch an independent probe into the scandal,
condemning signs of fresh torture and sexual abuse in the country by
the Iraqi prison authorities, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
“People
around the world will be recalling the horrific images they saw a year
ago and wondering what happened to those prisoners,” said Amnesty
secretary general Irene Khan, noting that only a handful of
low-ranking US soldiers had been prosecuted or disciplined over the
outrage.
“But
what was the role of those higher up, including, for example, the US
secretary of defence?” she demanded, referring to Donald Rumsfeld.
A
year after the dramatic revelations of sexual and physical abuse at
the prison on Baghdad’s western outskirts were leaked to the media,
only five of seven US guards have been punished.
“When
a major power like the USA resorts to torture or ill-treatment, other
countries may see a green light to follow suit,” said Khan in a
statement.
The
US-led invasion of Iraq was designed to end the suffering inflicted by
former dictator Saddam Hussein on his people, but instead has led to
new reports of torture carried out by the post-Saddam Iraqi security
forces, Amnesty said.
The
US army’s decision Friday, April 23, to exonerate
four senior brass, including the former top US commander in Iraq, of
any wrongdoing in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, has drew fire
from human rights watchdogs.
The
Washington Post revealed
last June that Sanchez gave
free reign to US officers in charge of Abu Ghraib
to adopt various torture and abuse tactics used at the infamous
Guantanamo detention camp.
“General
Sanchez gave the troops at Abu Ghraib the green light to use dogs to
terrorize detainees, and they did, and we know what happened, said
Brody.
“And
while mayhem went on under his nose for three months, Sanchez didn’t
step in to halt it.”
A
Sept. 14, 2003, memo signed by Sanchez that was made public last month
showed he authorized prisoner interrogation tactics more harsh than
accepted Army practice, including using guard dogs to exploit “Arab
fear of dogs.”
The
group added on its Web site that despite “all the damage that had
been done by the detainee abuse scandal, the United States had not
stopped the use of illegal coercive interrogation.”
“If
the United States is to wipe away the stain of Abu Ghraib, it needs to
investigate those at the top who ordered or condoned abuse and come
clean on what the president has authorized,” said Brody.
“Washington
must repudiate, once and for all, the mistreatment of detainees in the
name of the war on terror.”
“Look
Who is Talking”
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At least 11 suspects have “disappeared in US custody.
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Despite
all concerns raised by human rights’ groups, the Bush administration
chose to marking the anniversary of the abuse scandal on its own way.
The
US military said Thursday it was launching a “human rights
training” program for the Iraqi army’s detention personnel, AFP
said.
“You
must not allow abuse to come to the detainees, regardless of what they
may have done to a person and the country that you love,” Captain
Jacob Lilly was quoted as saying in a feature story sent out by the
military to the press.
“We’ve
had our problems in this arena, but we are learning from our mistakes
and are passing that knowledge on,” he said.
“A
second lieutenant intelligence officer with the 1st Iraqi Army brigade
said his soldiers know from the former reign of Saddam that torture
never brings positive results,” the statement quoted.
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