After torture claims, Iraqi PM says prisoners ‘burned themselves’ with matches to fake abuse

[meegbear]

Source: RawStory.com

After a shocking report by Human Rights Watch accusing the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki with operating a secret Baghdad prison where detainees were hung upside down, whipped and suffocated, the embattled Iraqi leader accused his political opponents and foreign governments of staging faked torture to make him look bad.

The stunning claim by the Shia prime minister comes after news that his Defense Ministry allegedly operated a secret prison which repeatedly tortured Sunni prisoners. A draft report by Human Rights Watch, released to the New York Times on Tuesday, revealed that guards had routinely abused detainees in horrifying fashion.

"The group said it had interviewed 42 detainees who displayed fresh scars and wounds," the Times' Sam Dagher wrote. "Many said they were raped, sodomized with broomsticks and pistol barrels, or forced to engage in sexual acts with one another and their jailers."

"All said they were tortured by being hung upside down and then whipped and kicked before being suffocated with a plastic bag," Dagher added. "Those who passed out were revived, they said, with electric shocks to their genitals and other parts of their bodies." “They applied electricity to my penis and sodomized me with a stick,” one of the former prisoners said.

Read more: http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0428/torture-claims-iraqi-pm-prisoners-burned-themselves-matches-fake-abuse/

---

<snip>

In response, Prime Minister Maliki said the charges were false and that “there are no secret prisons in Iraq at all,” a claim that seems to be spurious on its face.

Speaking on government-controlled Iraqiya TV, Maliki said the torture charges were "lies," a "smear campaign" orchestrated by foreign embassies and the media that have been tooled by his opponents for political gain.

Maliki went even further, positing that opposition lawmakers encouraged prisoners to hatch fake torture charges by “rubbing matches on some of their body parts” to give themselves scars.

He then said it was somewhat acceptable because of the scandal over the US-run Abu Ghraib prison.

“America is the symbol of democracy, but then you have the abuses at Abu Ghraib,” Maliki remarked, according to Dagher's report. “The American government took tough measures, and we are doing the same, so where is the problem and why this raucousness?”

<snip>

[derby378]

1. Now THAT'S change I can believe in!

Thanks for nothing, Georgie! :mad:

[hobbit709]

2. Right! And they bruised themselves by running into their cell walls too.

If these allegation were really false, he would welcome an open investigation.

[tekisui]

3. OMG! What a cold fucking liar.

Iraq is fucked.

[Soylent Brice]

4. *facepalm*

[groundloop]

5. And just why did prisoners have matches????

Next he'll be claiming prisoners cut themselves with knives or shot themselves with pistols to make it look like they were abused.

[Hepburn]

6. What total bullshit...

...where the heck did the prisoners get matches to begin with and then hide them thereafter?

GMAFB.....:eyes:

[Dangerman]

7. Al-Maliki is a jackass!

He's no better than Saddam when it comes to prisoner abuse and cover-up.

Like I said...

Today's Al-Maliki is tomorrow's Saddam.

[Solly Mack]

8. k/r