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May 7th, 2004, 16:54
Red Cross says it warned U.S. of prisoner abuse in Iraq more than a year ago
05:52 PM EDT May 07
GENEVA (AP) - The international Red Cross said Friday it had warned U.S. officials of abuse of prisoners in Iraq more than a year ago.
"Our findings were discussed at different moments between March and November 2003, either in direct face-to-face conversations or in written interventions," said Pierre Kraehenbuehl, director of operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross.
He declined to give details of the contents, but confirmed that a leaked ICRC report to U.S. authorities, published Friday by the Wall Street Journal, was genuine.
The newspaper said that the 24-page report described prisoners kept naked in total darkness in empty cells at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison and male prisoners forced to parade around in women's underwear. Coalition forces also fired on unarmed prisoners from watchtowers, killing some of them.
In another episode, nine men were arrested in Basra and beaten severely, leading to one death, it added.
"Ill-treatment during interrogation was not systematic, except with regard to persons arrested with suspected security offences or deemed to have an intelligence value," the report said, according to the newspaper.
It said that information obtained "suggested the use of ill-treatment against persons deprived of their liberty went beyond exceptional cases and might be considered a practice tolerated by" coalition forces.
The report was sent to the United States in February but represented a summary of the information given to U.S. authorities the previous year, Kraehenbuehl told a news conference.
He said the abuse of prisoners represented more than isolated acts, and that the problems were not limited to the Abu Ghraib prison
"We were dealing here with a broad pattern, not individual acts. There was a pattern and a system," he said.
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/040507/w050746.html
05:52 PM EDT May 07
GENEVA (AP) - The international Red Cross said Friday it had warned U.S. officials of abuse of prisoners in Iraq more than a year ago.
"Our findings were discussed at different moments between March and November 2003, either in direct face-to-face conversations or in written interventions," said Pierre Kraehenbuehl, director of operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross.
He declined to give details of the contents, but confirmed that a leaked ICRC report to U.S. authorities, published Friday by the Wall Street Journal, was genuine.
The newspaper said that the 24-page report described prisoners kept naked in total darkness in empty cells at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison and male prisoners forced to parade around in women's underwear. Coalition forces also fired on unarmed prisoners from watchtowers, killing some of them.
In another episode, nine men were arrested in Basra and beaten severely, leading to one death, it added.
"Ill-treatment during interrogation was not systematic, except with regard to persons arrested with suspected security offences or deemed to have an intelligence value," the report said, according to the newspaper.
It said that information obtained "suggested the use of ill-treatment against persons deprived of their liberty went beyond exceptional cases and might be considered a practice tolerated by" coalition forces.
The report was sent to the United States in February but represented a summary of the information given to U.S. authorities the previous year, Kraehenbuehl told a news conference.
He said the abuse of prisoners represented more than isolated acts, and that the problems were not limited to the Abu Ghraib prison
"We were dealing here with a broad pattern, not individual acts. There was a pattern and a system," he said.
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/040507/w050746.html