|
Iran-Iraq: Torture site backs fears of pro-Iran infiltrators |
|
|
|
|
Friday, 18 November 2005 |
 By Sharon Behn
Washington Times, November 18 - The discovery of a secret Iraqi
Interior Ministry torture chamber confirms what has been an open secret
in Baghdad for months: Pro-Iranian militia have deeply infiltrated the
ministry and are acting as a law unto themselves.
Iraqis have reported seeing men in Interior Ministry uniforms and
vehicles at the sites of extrajudicial killings of Sunnis, and at least
one reporter has been warned to keep his movements secret from the
ministry for fear of being kidnapped.
It is widely thought that the ministry also is infiltrated by criminal networks linked to the insurgency.
Civilians and police in Baghdad have known about secret detention
centers run by the ministry but have been too frightened of reprisals
to say anything about them, one police officer said yesterday.
"I am more scared of the Ministry of Interior than I am of the
insurgents," said the young police officer, who was reached by
telephone in Baghdad and spoke strictly on the condition of anonymity.
U.S. forces raided the ministry-run basement detention center in
Baghdad's upmarket Jadriyah neighborhood on Sunday, finding more than
160 malnourished prisoners, several bearing signs of torture. Most of
them were Sunnis.
Asked whether there were other such prisons in Baghdad, the frightened
police officer said it was "a very sensitive issue and would make big
problems" if he spoke about them.
The Interior Ministry is headed by Bayan Jabr, a member of the
pro-Iranian Shi'ite Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. The
party's military branch, the Badr Brigade, has been accused of running
anti-Sunni hit squads out of the ministry.
Attorneys for Saddam Hussein, for example, have blamed the ministry's
security forces for the killing last month of defense attorney Saadoun
Sughaiyer al-Janabi. The ministry denied any connection to the slaying.
Witnesses to the killing said about 10 armed men dressed in business
suits identified themselves as Interior Ministry officials when they
stormed Mr. al-Janabi's Baghdad office and kidnapped him. His body was
found on the sidewalk hours later.
Mr. Jabr has said that reports of torture in the detention center were
exaggerated and that the prisoners were suspected of participating in a
Sunni-led insurgency that routinely kills and maims civilians and
security forces.
"I reject torture, and I will punish those who perform torture," he
said at a press conference yesterday. "No one was beheaded, no one was
killed."
Mr. Jabr added that "those who are supporting terrorism are making the
exaggerations" about torture and that only seven detainees showed signs
of abuse.
However, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad issued its toughest statement yet
on the incident, saying the government "has assured us that it will
take immediate action to investigate ... and to undertake measures to
ensure that no Ministry of Interior detainees would be subject to abuse
anywhere in Iraq."
The embassy also said, "There must not be militia or sectarian control
or direction or Iraqi Security Forces, facilities or ministries."
Detainee abuse would not be tolerated by either the Iraqi government or
coalition forces, the statement said. Gen. Rick Lynch announced
yesterday that five U.S. soldiers had been charged with beating and
kicking Iraqi detainees last week and were awaiting judgment.
An Iraqi man described to the Reuters news agency how he was tortured
with hundreds of other detainees in an Interior Ministry building
similar to the bunker revealed this week.
"They had lists of people and lists of charges, and they tortured
people to get confessions," said the Sunni man, who wanted to be
identified only by the initials H.H.
"I was not tortured as badly as others. I was hung by a ceiling hook by
my hands, which were tied behind my back during three days, and they
told me to confess to killing Shi'ites," he said.
He told Reuters that the prisoners were under the control of the
Interior Ministry special forces group known as the Wolf Brigade.
U.S. analysts with experience in Iraq said ordinary Iraqis have long
been complaining about the Interior Ministry's extrajudicial tactics.
"Iraqis were telling me that you had to be careful about the special
police commandos and that they were Badr -- these were Sunni and
Shi'ite telling me," said Paul Hughes, the Iraq program officer at the
U.S. Institute of Peace and a retired army colonel who recently
returned from Baghdad.
|
English
Francais
Deutsch
Italiano
العربيّة
