Abu
Ghuraib Prisoners
Speak of 'Torture'
05 May, 2004
Aljazeera
Former
inmates of the US-occupation run Abu Ghuraib prison near Baghdad still
find it difficult to relate their experiences of torture and humiliation,
as more pictures of abuse come to light.
One of the released
detainees who was forced to pose naked in a human pyramid has told Aljazeera
that the acts committed against them were so horrible that he still
could not get himself to speak about most of it.
"They wanted
to humiliate us. It was disgusting", said Hashim Muhsin.
"They covered
our heads with plastic bags and hit our backs with sharp objects, which
added to our wounds".
"They then
took off all our clothes, made us stand next to the wall and carried
out immoral acts that I cannot even talk about", Muhsin continued.
He said "women
soldiers took pictures of naked men and did not care".
CIA present
Another released
prisoner, Haidir Sabbar told Aljazeera that "CIA officials and
two Iraqi and Egyptian translators showed us immoral pictures of the
acts that took place" before interrogating them.
Seven US soldiers
have been reprimanded for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners and six more
are under investigation. The reprimands were the first known punishment
meted out to soldiers involved in the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu
Ghuraib.
Last week, an American
television channel, CBS, broadcast images showing Iraqis stripped naked,
hooded and being tormented by their US captors.
An internal US army
report found that Iraqi detainees were subjected to "sadistic,
blatant and wanton criminal abuses", according to The New Yorker
magazine.
Intelligence
blamed
Brigadier-General
Janis Karpinski who oversaw the prison, claimed she did not know about
the abuse and blamed "military intelligence" for being behind
the abuse.
"The cellblocks
were actually in operation for the interrogations and isolation under
the Military Intelligence control," she said. "It was part
of the Abu Ghraib prisoner operation but those cellblocks, cellblock
1A and 1B and the prison was actually under the control at that time".
Karpinski added
that "there was one photograph that didn't show the faces completely,
but the photograph showed 32 boots (of a lightweight boot)".
Asked whether she
was saying the people who were wearing those boots were CIA or military
intelligence, she replied "I'm saying other people than the military
police were the ones committing the abuses."
'Shared responsibility'
Karpinski said
she thought "there are others responsible here, not limited to
one person or any individual or command. But there is a shared responsibility
in this."
The alleged abuses
were said to have involved about 20 prisoners and took place in November
and December last year.
The New Yorker magazine,
meanwhile has released additional images of the abuse, including that
of the dead body of a prisoner, wrapped in cellophane and packed in
ice as well as a group of Iraqis bound and lying on the ground.
Latest reports by
Aljazeera's correspondent, quoting a US military spokesman is that 208
prisoners have been released from the Abu Ghuraib prison.