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Iraqi says he was held with hundreds in secret jail
By Michael Georgy
11/17/05 BAGHDAD, Nov 17 (Reuters) - An Iraqi man told on Thursday
how he was tortured along with hundreds of other detainees in an
Interior Ministry building similar to a secret bunker at the centre
of a prisoner abuse scandal.
"There was an average of 800 prisoners at any one time in a building
controlled by the Wolf Brigades (Interior Ministry special forces),"
the man, who asked that he only be identified by his initials H.H.,
told Reuters.
"They had lists of people and lists of charges and they tortured
people to get confessions."
The man, a 43-year-old contractor who was introduced to Reuters by a
Sunni politician, said he was held in two run-down buildings from
late May to early November.
One was near the Baghdad police academy and the other close to the
commercial district of Bab al-Sharjee.
There was no way to independently verify the man's account.
Iraq's interior minister on Thursday sought to dismiss the scandal
over a secret prison bunker, saying only very few of the 170 people
said to have been held there were abused and denying he had condoned
torture.
"I don't accept for any officer to even slap a prisoner," Interior
Minister Bayan Jabor told a packed news conference, his first public
appearance since U.S. forces found the bunker and scores of
malnourished and badly beaten men on Sunday.
"The talk about this has been inaccurate," he said, adding that he
was only commenting on the issue because his aides had put pressure
on him to do so.
Political leaders from Iraq's once-dominant Sunni Arab minority have
demanded an international investigation into allegations that
Shi'ite militias linked to the Interior Ministry were responsible
for the torture and abuse.
H.H., a Sunni, said he was seized at his home near Baghdad on the
morning of May 22. He said his weight dropped from 95 kg (209 lb) to
65 kg (143 lb) in prison due to lack of food.
"I was not tortured as badly as others. I was hung by a ceiling hook
by my hands which were tied behind my back during three days and
they told me to confess to killing Shi'ites," he said, adding he and
hundreds of other detainees were held in a room 160 metres long (525
feet) and 40 meters (131 feet) wide.
"The others had it much worse. They were whipped with cables and had
their arms broken," he said.
H.H. said 150 prisoners confessed under torture during his
detention. He named one as Muhammed Abdel-Razzak and said an entire
family from the Baghdad district of Doura also confessed under
duress.
"They gave us awful pieces of bread and a little bit of cheese and
30 grams of rice every day. Those places were not fit for animals,"
he said.
Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said earlier this week that 173 men
and teenage boys were discovered at the prison, near the Interior
Ministry, and said there was evidence many of them had been
tortured. He has ordered an investigation.
Jabor, raising his voice in anger as he rejected several of the
allegations being made, said only a handful of people showed any
sign of being beaten, and said they were all detained for suspected
militant activity after arrest warrants were issued.
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