Rights watchdog: Iraq torture routine in prison

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Rights watchdog: Iraq torture routine in prison
By LARA JAKES
The Associated Press
Wednesday, April 28, 2010; 4:24 AM

BAGHDAD -- Iraqi men held for months at a secret prison outside Baghdad were systematically tortured and forced to sign confession statements that in at least some cases they were forbidden to read, according to a new report by a leading human rights group.

Some of the detainees were beaten by Iraqi guards so badly they lost teeth and urinated blood for days afterward, said the report by New York-based Human Rights Watch. Others were raped, given electric shocks applied to their penises and deprived of air, the report also said.

The Iraqi government quickly shut down the prison after the torture was revealed last week, and either released or transferred its 431 detainees to another facility. The government also vowed to investigate the abuses, and so far, three army officers have been arrested in connection with the case.

The reports of horrific beatings and torture at the Defense Ministry-run Al-Rusafa Detention Center has angered the country's Sunni population who see it as another example of persecution at the hands of Iraq's Shiite-led government. It also shocked many Iraqi and U.S. officials, harkening back to images of the abuses of Iraqis by U.S. guards at the Abu Ghraib prison that inflamed insurgents and tarnished America's image worldwide.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/28/AR2010042800680.html

[dipsydoodle]

1. Widespread torture at secret Baghdad prison revealed by human rights group

PRISONERS held in a secret Baghdad jail suffered a variety of tortures from electric shocks to sodomy, according to a report released today by the Human Rights Watch organisation.

The group is calling for Iraq to investigate and prosecute those government and security officials found to be responsible.

Human Rights Watch, a worldwide organisation that strives to shine the light on such abuse, interviewed 42 of the men in the al Rusafa Detention Centre on April 26, 2010.

They were among about 300 detainees transferred from the secret facility in the old Muthanna airport in West Baghdad to al Rusafa over the past several weeks, after the existence of the secret prison was revealed.

http://www.news.com.au/world/widespread-torture-at-secret-baghdad-prison-revealed-by-human-rights-group/story-e6frfkyi-1225859534863

BBC link here too : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8648059.stm

[saigon68]

4. In the foot steps of Lyndie

[Lars77]

2. Report Details Torture at Secret Baghdad Prison

Source: NY Times

BAGHDAD — The torture of Iraqi detainees at a secret prison in Baghdad was far more systematic and brutal than initially reported, Human Rights Watch reported on Tuesday.

The existence of the prison, which housed mostly Sunni Arab prisoners, has created a political furor in Iraq, prompted government denials and fanned sectarian tensions.

“Abu Ghraib was a picnic” compared with the secret prison, said Sheik Abdullah Humedi Ajeel al-Yawar, one of the most influential Sunni Arab tribal leaders in the northern province of Nineveh, where the detainees were rounded up by Iraqi soldiers based on suspicions that they had links to the insurgency and brought to Baghdad with little due process. Abu Ghraib is the prison at which American guards tortured Iraqi prisoners, severely damaging Iraqis’ trust in the United States.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/world/middleeast/28baghdad.html

[Soylent Brice]

3. K&R

[Iowa]

5. This is what happens when world leaders shield and protect torturers...

It gradually becomes standard operating procedure. We can expect to see a lot more of this.