Amnesty International on detention and torture in Iraq
Iraq, Politics, 3/8/2006

An Amnesty International report Monday quoted a former Iraqi detainee, Karim R., saying "The first time they subjected me to electric shocks I fainted for something like 40 seconds to one minute. It felt like falling from a building. I had a headache and was not able to walk," after his release from detention by the Iraqi Interior Ministry forces in May 2005.

Amnesty International said: This was not Karim R's first time in detention. A 47-year old imam and preacher (khatib), Karim R was detained by US forces in 2003 and then by Iraqi forces in 2005. On each occasion, he was subsequently released uncharged.

Karim's story is also one of many others coming out of Iraq. In May 2005 four Palestinians who were long term residents of Iraq - Faraj 'Abdullah Mulhim, aged 41, 'Adnan 'Abdullah Mulhim, aged 31, Amir 'Abdullah Mulhim, aged 26, and Mas'ud Nur al-Din al-Mahdi, aged 33 – alleged that they were tortured and ill-treated after they were detained by members of the Wolf Brigade (which operate under the auspices of the Iraqi Interior Ministry) who took them from their homes in Baghdad. All four were seized on the night of 12 May 2005, and remain imprisoned to this day.

Ahmed Musa, the lawyer of the four men, tells Amnesty International that even though his clients have been brought before a court of law, the court proceedings have been stalled unnecessarily, providing no remedy for their plight or the plight of their families.

These are only two of the cases of torture and ill-treatment at the hands of the Iraqi security forces, detailed in Amnesty International's new report on Iraq, 'Beyond Abu Ghraib: detention and torture in Iraq'. In this report, Amnesty International also focuses on human rights violations for which the US-led Multinational Force (MNF) is directly responsible.

Since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, tens of thousands of people have been detained by foreign forces, mainly US forces, without being charged or tried. Some of these detainees have been held for over two years without the right to challenge their detention before a judicial body, or any effective remedy. Others have been released without explanation or apology or reparation after months in detention.

The MNF has established procedures which deprive detainees of human rights guaranteed in international human rights law and standards. In particular, the MNF denies detainees their right to challenge the lawfulness of their detention before a court. There exists no time limit for the detention of those hundreds of security internees who have been detained by the MNF since before the hand over of power in June 2004.

Meantime, on March 2, a Guardian Unlimited (www.Guardian.co.uk) report said that: "Faik Bakir, the director of the Baghdad morgue, has fled Iraq in fear of his life after reporting that more than 7,000 people have been killed by death squads in recent months, the outgoing head of the UN human rights office in Iraq has disclosed. "The vast majority of bodies showed signs of summary execution - many with their hands tied behind their back. Some showed evidence of torture, with arms and leg joints broken by electric drills," said John Pace, the Maltese UN official. The killings had been happening long before the bloodshed after last week's bombing of the Shia shrine in Samarra.

Previous Stories:
  Investigations into Iraqi government death squads   (2/17/2006)
  Jaafari deplores new Abu Ghreib torture photographs   (2/17/2006)
  Rumsfeld on Iraq strategy, uniformed death squads, Iraqi elections   (11/30/2005)
  UN for international investigation into detainee torture in Iraq   (11/18/2005)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search