Iraq Investigates Claim of Detainee Abuse
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari is promising a swift investigation after U.S. troops on a raid found more than 170 detainees locked in an Interior Ministry bunker last weekend in Baghdad.The prisoners were allegedly tortured by their Iraqi guards.
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US officials say they are troubled by allegations that Iraqi prisoners were tortured by their Iraqi guards. Iraq's prime minister is promising a swift investigation after more than 170 detainees were found last weekend in a Baghdad building. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports from Baghdad.
PETER KENYON reporting:
Iraq's Sunni minority has long believed that the newly empowered Shiite security forces include rogue elements that carry out revenge attacks and mistreat Sunni captives. The Iraqi government has staunchly denied those allegations until US forces entered an old interior ministry building in Baghdad Sunday night. Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jafari announced last night that 173 detainees were found, said to be suffering from malnutrition and showing signs of beatings. Jafari says such behavior would not be tolerated.
Prime Minister IBRAHIM AL-JAFARI (Iraq): (Through Translator) I found the committee to be headed by one of my deputies and to include other Cabinet ministers. I told them they must start immediately and finish their investigation within two weeks. Another committee has been formed to determine the number of prisoners in other jails around Iraq and the conditions they are in to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again.
KENYON: A senior official with the Sunni Iraq Islamic Party said this proves that Ministry of Interior forces were engaged in random arrests and brutal torture. He demanded a neutral investigation beyond the Jafari government's control. The Bush administration, highly sensitive to torture controversies, issued a statement saying, `Mistreatment of detainees is totally unacceptable.'
Another story circulating among Sunnis is that US forces used a mysterious white gas during its assault on Fallujah a year ago. Initially, the Pentagon said its use of white phosphorous was not as a weapon but to provide a white cloud to cover the advance of US forces. But now Pentagon spokesman Barry Venable tells the BBC's Radio Four that white phosphorous was, in fact, used directly on suspected insurgent positions.
(Soundbite of BBC Radio 4)
Mr. BARRY VENABLE (Pentagon Spokesman): It was used as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants. One technique is to fire white phosphorous round or rounds into the position because the combined effects of the fire and smoke will drive them out of the holes so that you can kill them with high explosives.
KENYON: White phosphorous is not classified as a chemical weapon and isn't illegal, but in a country where chemical weapons were used by the Saddam regime, the clouds of burning gas were seen by one military journal quoted by the BBC as a potent psychological weapon. It's now also an image problem for the US military in Iraq. Peter Kenyon, NPR News, Baghdad.
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