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International outcry greets allegations of police abuse
· Ministers launch inquiry after detainees found
· Shia paramilitaries now control force, say Sunnis
Ewen MacAskill and Rory McCarthy in Beirut Michael Howard
11/17/05 "The
Guardian" -- -- Seif Saad, an Iraqi guard, showed no
remorse yesterday for the detention and alleged abuse of 173
prisoners in Baghdad. "We placed sacks on their heads and tied their
hands behind their backs," he said of their arrests, but, as far as
he was concerned, they were suspected terrorists.
He was standing in a watchtower overlooking the ministry of the
interior building where the detainees were held. The cells were
found at the weekend by US forces and the discovery of the prisoners
- and the allegations of torture - have provoked an international
outcry.
The Iraqi police force is now subject to intense scrutiny. The main
charge is that the police have been infiltrated by Shia Muslim
paramilitaries - in particular the Iranian-backed Badr Brigades -
who have targeted Iraq's minority Sunni community, from which the
insurgency arose.
Since a new Iraqi government was established in the spring, several
accounts have emerged of arrests, abuse and extrajudicial killings
by paramilitary forces linked to the ministry and dominated by Shia
Muslims operating in squads with names such as the Scorpions and the
Wolf Brigade. Almost all the incidents have had a sectarian edge.
Mr Saad, 18, a former labourer with no police training, denied the
arrests were religiously motivated. He told a Reuters reporter the
suspects had been brought in for questioning in connection with
bombings, regardless of whether they were Sunni, Shia or Kurd. The
reporter said Mr Saad wore a special forces uniform resembling that
of a Shia paramilitary group.
US forces said they had been hunting for a missing youth when they
uncovered the secret detention centre. The Iraqi government has
launched an inquiry and promised an answer within a week.
But Manfred Novak, the UN special envoy on torture, based in Geneva,
yesterday called for an independent inquiry. He has received various
allegations of torture and degrading treatment by both US and Iraqi
forces in Iraq. "That torture is still practised in Iraq after
Saddam Hussein is no secret," he said.
Stephen Bowen, an Amnesty International UK campaigns director, said:
"This is by no means the first time that we've encountered cases of
detainees apparently being tortured by members of the interior
ministry - a grisly pattern is emerging. It's tragic that after
years of documenting torture, killings and incommunicado detention
under Saddam, we are talking about the same issues in the same
country - with different perpetrators."
Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, used the organs of the state, particularly
12 branches of the secret police, to oppress the Shias and Kurds.
After his fall, the expected mass revenge killings by the Shias
against the Sunnis did not take place. But the Shia now effectively
control the organs of state, including the interior ministry and the
police, allegedly working in collusion with Shia paramilitary
groups. Various organisations - human rights groups as well as Sunni
groups - claim that the Shia are now using those organs against
former members of Saddam's regime and other Sunnis, as well as Sunni
political groups.
Ayad al-Samarrai, a senior official with the Iraqi Islamic party, a
mainstream Sunni group, said his organisation had made complaints
about the illegal arrest and abuse of Sunni Muslims by government
paramilitary forces over the past six months. "We submitted our
claims to the government, to the ministry of interior, to the
multinational forces, to the Iraqi army. We were saying this for
many months before this prison was found," he told the Guardian.
The party wanted an independent Iraqi inquiry established, with
support from the US military and perhaps the UN, but with the powers
to enter interior ministry buildings to investigate the widely
reported accounts of abuse and torture. If no suitable Iraqi inquiry
team could be set up, then an international investigation should be
set up, he said. He said officials from Iraq's human rights ministry
had tried to investigate but had been refused access by the powerful
interior ministry.
"All those who were released from this prison were Sunnis," Mr
Samarrai said. "It looks like part of a plan to make this community
terrified, or to push them to leave Iraq or to leave their homes, or
to force them into violence as they will think it is the only way to
protect themselves."
The treatment of the Sunnis has caused concern among the Kurds, who
urged in a memo to the Iraqi prime minister, Ibrahim Jaafari, a
Shia, to "put an end to arbitrary crimes against the Sunni
Arabs".The Kurds are in coalition government with the Shia and the
memo was signed by the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, a Kurd.
An Iraqi law student, who would only give his initials, MI, said
yesterday he had been among those detained at the interior ministry.
He had been arrested in August and released six weeks ago.
Interviewed by Reuters at a Sunni party office, the 22-year-old said
he had been blindfolded, his hands bound and hung from a ceiling
hook. He was whipped with metal cables. "They called us Sunni dogs
and thieves or friends of Saddam Hussein." He said he had been in a
room with 100 others, and that sometimes the captors used drills
against people. "They put me in a barrel full of cold water during
questioning and gave me electric shocks," he said.
He said life was so tough that prisoners prayed for a transfer to
the notorious US-run Abu Ghraib prison.
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
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