Prisoners Brutalized In
Baghdad Gulag PrisonBy Gordon Thomas
American Free Press
06 August, 2003Each prisoner receives six pints of dank, tepid water a day. He uses it to wash and drink in summer noonday temperatures of 120 degrees Fahrenheit. He is not allowed to wash his clothes. He is provided with a small cup of delousing powder to deal with the worst of his body infestation.
For the slightest infringement of draconian rules he is forced to sit in painful positions. If he cries out in protest his head is covered with a sack for lengthy periods.
This is daily life in America’s shameful Gulag—Camp Cropper on the outskirts of Baghdad International Airport.
Except for guards and prisoners, only the International Red Cross is allowed inside. They are forbidden to describe what they see.
But some of its staff have broken ranks—to tell Amnesty International (AI), the London-based human rights watchdog, of the shocking conditions the 3,000 Iraqi prisoners are held under.
None had been charged with any offense. They are listed as suspected “looters” and “rioters.” Or listed as “loyal to Saddam Hussein.”
Every day more prisoners are crowded into the broiling, dusty compound. Surrounded by 10-foot-high razor wire, they live in tents that are little protection against the blistering sun. They sleep 80 to a tent on wafer-thin mats.
Each prisoner has a long-handled shovel to dig his own latrine. Some are too old or weak to dig the ordered depth of three feet. Others find they have excavated pits already used.
The overpowering stench in this hellhole is suffocating. “Add to sleep deprivation and physical abuse you have highly degrading conditions which are tantamount to torture and gross abuse of human rights,” said Curt Goering, deputy director of AI.
He confirmed that AI had received “credible reports” of detainees who had died in custody, “mostly as a result of shooting by members of the coalition forces.”
Camp Cropper also houses a growing number of what are listed as “special prisoners.” They include the former deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, Saadiun Hammadi, the former speaker of the Iraqi Parliament, and Ezzar Ibrahim, the son of Saddam’s second in command on the Revolutionary Command Council.
A woman “special” is Huda Ammash—known as “Chemical Sally,” because she was a key member of Saddam’s chemical and biological weapons program.
The week before he allegedly committed suicide, Dr. David Kelly, the English scientist, had prepared questions he planned to put to her when he returned to Iraq to assist in the search for weapons of mass destruction.
“Chemical Sally” sleeps in a tent with other women members of the Ba’ath Party. Like the men, they are not allowed to wash their underwear—and several have developed sores, according to a Red Cross visitor.
After two months incarceration none of the “special prisoners” has been told what charges he or she will face—though several, like Aziz, had surrendered voluntarily to the Americans.
A glimpse of his life now has come from one of the few prisoners to be released, Adnan Jassim.
“Tariq Aziz has aged very much in the past months in the camp. He shuffles and has a stoop,” said Jassim. “This may be because he has to dig his own toilet hole. It is forbidden for anyone to help him to do this. He is treated just like anyone else—an animal to be driven wherever the guards want him.
“His hair has grown. It is very dirty. He gets no special treatment: The same terrible food. Mostly he eats very little of it. It is hard to believe he was second to Saddam, the most powerful man in Iraq,” said Jassim.
Jassim was arrested the day after the war officially ended. He insists that he was stopped for speeding.
“The Americans just fired at my car. Then they threw me into a truck and took me to the camp. At the gate I had a badge pinned to my shirt. It said ‘presumed killer.’ I have never even fired a gun, let alone killed anyone,” Jassim insisted.
AI’s human rights workers and Red Cross officials have gathered statements from the few prisoners who have been released. One detainee, Suheil Laibbi Mohammed, who used to work as a mechanic, repairing Saddam’s fleet of cars, said he had seen prisoners repeatedly hit with rifle butts.
Detainees described being given food that is inedible to Muslims. Most of the meat was pork. “But it was either eat it or starve,” said Rafed Adel Mehdi.
Aziz’s wife, Zureida, and his two sons fled to Jordan when the war ended.
In London their family lawyer, Dr. Abdul Haq al-Ani, wants to serve a writ of habeas corpus on Britain’s embattled Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon, arguing that his client is being held in contravention of the Geneva Convention and the Human Rights Act.
“I spent a week in Baghdad, but I was not allowed to see my client,” said al-Ani. “I know the conditions he is being held under from those who have been released. It is outrageous what is happening.”
“Chemical Sally’s” family is also planning legal moves to have her freed. They have submitted evidence to the Americans that she has breast cancer and has to continue treatments.
Her mother, Kasmah Ammash, a frail 70-year-old, said: “My daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer in the late ’80s. She went to Pittsburgh for chemotherapy and underwent a mastectomy. Before she was arrested she was undergoing further follow-up treatment. How can they be so cruel?”
AI said it urged the coalition forces to look into allegations and to convict those found guilty of offenses.
“The Americans have acknowledged there are some serious problems,” said Goering. “But there is a difference of opinion on what laws apply.”
Nada Doumani, the International Red Cross spokesman in Baghdad, said: “We never comment on the conditions at the detention centers.”
Doumani added: “The Geneva Convention is clear about the obligations that exist for legal advice and visits. If someone is being held as a POW, then there is a legal obligation to allow him or her access to legal advice. But if they are held as a civilian, that does not apply. A tribunal has been set up to decide which category each person in the camp fits into. Until their work is complete, we can say no more.”