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"We are talking about the group of men who are supposed to protect us but instead are beating, raping and arresting innocent Iraqis," said a rights advocate. |
BAGHDAD — Salman [not his real name] says he was locked up, beaten, raped and humiliated for long months.
His abusers, according to him, were not vicious gangs or armed militias, but rather those who, by law, were supposed to protect him.
"I was beaten more than four times per week, and sometimes I stayed the whole night inside a room being interrogated and tortured," the young man told IslamOnline.net, recalling his 9-month ordeal in police custody.
"After one month…they started to rape me every week," he added with a painful look in his eyes.
Salman was detained for nine months without being told why and was never allowed a visit by a lawyer despite his family's frantic efforts to find his whereabouts.
He says the horror started from his first day in police custody, but it is the routine rape nightmare that continues to eat into his soul.
"Always having one holding a gun in my face while the other two guys were raping me, the feeling I had was that I would live that life until I die in prison," said a tearful Salman.
"I started praying to God to take my life."
Finally, his suffering came to an end after his family paid $9,000 to get him released from custody.
"The day I was released, the same rapists walked me through the main gate and threatened me that if I dared speak with any person about what happed, my mother and sister would be next."
There are nearly 560,000 police personnel in Iraq, and some 3500 others are being trained in five police academies.
Rampant
But even after his release, Salman's nightmare is far from over and he feels the scars will be with him until he goes into his grave.
"It was too hard for a man who was going to marry in few weeks to see his honor being destroyed."
Tragic as it is, local rights groups say Salman is just one of hundreds, if not thousands, of abuse cases in police custody.
"The victims of such abuses come to our office in a complete nervous breakdown," Hanna Zuhair, spokesperson for Prisoners' Association for Justice (PAJ), told IOL.
"Many have tried to commit suicide, but no police officers were charged for what they have done."
Zuhair, whose Baghdad-based organization campaigns for the rights of detainees, recalls the case of an 18-years-old who also was a victim of rape.
"[He] was raped in prison after arrested from his college gate for walking with a person who looked like a terrorist."
Even government officials admit that sexualized torture has become rampant among police ranks.
"There is also a huge number of raped women," affirms Sawsan al-Barack, a senior official at the Ministry of Human Rights.
In many cases, officers raid homes asking a woman to accompany them because her husband is going to be released.
"They are happy with the news and most of the time they don't ask a male relative to go with them," said a senior ministry official, requesting anonymity.
"When inside the vehicle, she is threatened that if she doesn't collaborate, her husband is going to suffer the consequences in prison."
Recently, a mobile-recorded video showing a woman in the city of Fallujah being raped by a police officer was leaked to the media.
The investigation revealed that the woman had been drugged after visiting her husband in detention.
Untouchable
What adds insult to injury is that police abuses go unpunished.
"Sometimes I feel hand-tied as we can not press charges against an officer," says al-Barack, the Human Rights Ministry official.
She explained that in most of the cases neither the victim nor witnesses would agree to press charges against the perpetrators, fearing reprisals against themselves or their families.
Ali Ramizi, a senior Ministry of Interior officer, agrees.
"Sometimes it is hard to find out who was responsible as the victim is too afraid to get recognized or to be a witness in court."
Even police officers who reject the acts of their colleagues are afraid to speak up.
"I regret what some of my colleagues are doing but fighting against them will just make shorter my way to a grave," a local police officer in Baghdad told IOL, asking not to be named.
"If I speak out about what is happening in prisons, my family might be the ones who will suffer the consequences."
But Zuhair, the rights advocate, insists there has to be a way to hold rapist police personnel accountable for their crimes.
"We are talking about the group of men who are supposed to protect us but instead are beating, raping and arresting innocent Iraqis. It is unacceptable," he said.
"When these victims turn into terrorists, the government doesn't see that they had their very reasons."
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