From Robert Fisk and Amnesty International: two reports
on how Uncle Sam has become the new Saddam.
"Amnesty staff heard complaints that included
prolonged sleep deprivation and detainees being
forced to stay in painful positions or wear hoods
over their heads for long periods....
" 'Detainees continue to report suffering extreme heat
while housed in tents; insufficient water; inadequate
washing facilities; open trenches for toilets; no change
of clothes, even after two months' detention,'
Amnesty said.
"...It had received several reports of cases of detainees
who have died in custody, 'mostly as a result of shooting
by members of the coalition forces....'
"There continue to be many reports of members of the
coalition forces engaging in house searches and damaging
or destroying property without justification.... There are
also numerous reports of confiscation of property,
including large sums of money, upon arrest."
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Forwarded from www.counterpunch.org
July 24, 2003
The Ugly Truth of Camp Cropper
A Torture Story to Shame Us All
By ROBERT FISK
Now here's a story to shame us all. It's about America's shameful
prison camps in Iraq. It's about the beating of prisoners during
interrogation.
"Sources" may be a dubious word in journalism right now, but the
sources for the beatings in Iraq are impeccable. This story is also
about the gunning down of three prisoners in Baghdad, two of them
"while trying to escape". But most of all, it's about Qais Mohamed
al-Salman. Qais al-Salman is just the sort of guy the US ambassador
Paul Bremer and his dead-end assistants need now. He hated Saddam,
fled Iraq in 1976, then returned after the "liberation" with a
briefcase literally full of plans to help in the restoration of his
country's infrastructure and water purification system.
He's an engineer who has worked in Africa, Asia and Europe. He is a
Danish citizen. He speaks good English. He even likes America. Or did
until 6 June this year.
That day he was travelling in Abu Nawas Street when his car came under
American fire. He says he never saw a checkpoint. Bullets hit the
tyres and his driver and another passenger ran for their lives. Qais
al-Salman stood meekly beside the vehicle. He was carrying his Danish
passport, Danish driving licence and medical records.
But let him tell his own story. "A civilian car came up with American
soldiers in it. Then more soldiers in military vehicles. I told them I
didn't understand what had happened, that I was a scientific researcher.
But they made me lie down in the street, tied my arms behind me
with plastic-and-steel cuffs and tied up my feet and
put me in one of their vehicles."
The next bit of his story carries implications for our own
journalistic profession. "After 10 minutes in the vehicle, I was taken
out again. There were journalists with cameras. The Americans untied
me, then made me lie on the road again. Then, in front of the cameras,
they tied my hands and feet all over again and put me back in the
vehicle."
If this wasn't a common story in Baghdad today -- if the gross
injustices meted out to ordinary Iraqis and the equally gross
mistreatment in America's prison camps here was not so common
-- then Qais al-Salman's story would not be so important.
Amnesty International turned up in Baghdad yesterday to investigate,
as well as Saddam's monstrous crimes, the mass detention centre run by
the Americans at Baghdad international airport in which up to 2,000
prisoners live in hot, airless tents. The makeshift jail is called
Camp Cropper and there have already been two attempted breakouts.
Both would-be escapees, needless to say, were swiftly shot dead by
their American captors. Yesterday, Amnesty was forbidden permission to
visit Camp Cropper. This is where the Americans took Qais Al-Salman on
6 June.
He was put in Tent B, a vast canvas room containing up to 130
prisoners. "There were different classes of people there," Qais
al-Salman says. "There were people of high culture, doctors and
university people, and there were the most dirty, animal people,
thieves and criminals the like of which I never saw before.
"In the morning, I was taken for interrogation before an American
military intelligence officer. I showed him letters involving me in US
aid projects . He pinned a label on my shirt. It read, Suspected
Assassin'."
Now there probably are some assassins in Camp Cropper. The good, the
bad and the ugly have been incarcerated there: old Baathists, possible
Iraqi torturers, looters and just about anyone who has got in the way
of the American military. Only "selected" prisoners are beaten during
interrogation. Again, I repeat, the source is impeccable, and Western.
Qais Al-Salman was given no water to wash in, and after trying to
explain his innocence to a second interrogator, he went on hunger
strike. No formal charges were made against him. There were no rules
for the American jailers.
"Some soldiers drove me back to Baghdad after 33 days in that camp,"
Qais al-Salman says. "They dropped me in Rashid Street and gave me
back my documents and Danish passport and they said, Sorry'."
Qais al-Salman went home to his grief-stricken mother who had long
believed her son was dead. No American had contacted her despite her
desperate requests to the US authorities for help. Not one of the
Americans had bothered to tell the Danish government they had
imprisoned one of its citizens. Just as in Saddam's day, a man had
simply been "disappeared" off the streets of Baghdad.
Robert Fisk is a reporter for The Independent
and author of "Pity the Nation". He is also a
contributor to Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey
St. Clair's forthcoming book, "The Politics of
Anti-Semitism".
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Published on Wednesday, July 23, 2003 by Reuters
Amnesty: Iraqis Complain of Torture by U.S. Forces
BAGHDAD -- Iraqis detained by U.S. troops have complained of torture
and degrading treatment, Amnesty International said Wednesday.
There were also reports of troops shooting detainees, the London-based
human rights watchdog said in a report based on interviews with former
prisoners of the Americans across Iraq.
Iraqis detained by U.S. troops accused their captors
of torture and degrading treatment, rights group
Amnesty International reported on July 23, 2003,
calling on the occupying forces to bring human rights
violators to justice. Detainees also said troops had
shot some captives, the London-based rights watchdog
reported, in a study based on interviews with former
prisoners of U.S. forces across Iraq. U.S. Deputy
Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz tours Iraq's
Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad July 20.
The prison had held Saddam's political prisoners, and
now is run by U.S. forces to hold detainees.
Amnesty staff heard complaints that included prolonged sleep
deprivation and detainees being forced to stay in painful positions or
wear hoods over their heads for long periods.
"Such treatment would amount to 'torture and inhumane treatment'
prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention and by international human
rights law," Amnesty said.
U.S. military officials were not immediately available to comment on
the report.
Amnesty staff gathered testimony from former detainees around Iraq and
from relatives of some still being held.
The organization made several requests to visit detention centers but
were denied access by U.S. forces that have struggled to impose law
and order since the invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein in April.
"Detainees continue to report suffering extreme heat while housed in
tents; insufficient water; inadequate washing facilities; open
trenches for toilets; no change of clothes, even after two months'
detention," Amnesty said.
Amnesty has said thousands are held in prisons run by U.S. troops.
They include Abu Ghraib, one the most feared jails under Saddam, and
Camp Cropper near Baghdad's airport.
The human rights group said it had received several reports of cases
of detainees who have died in custody, "mostly as a result of shooting
by members of the coalition forces."
Amnesty said 22-year-old Alaa Jassem was killed when soldiers fired on
detainees during a riot on June 13 at Abu Ghraib. Demonstrators threw
bricks and poles at the soldiers.
"According to eyewitnesses, Alaa Jassem was in a tent when he was
shot. Seven other detainees were wounded," Amnesty said.
Other allegations reported by Amnesty included the case of Saadi
al-Ubaydi on the morning of May 14, when two U.S. armed vehicles
crashed through the stone wall surrounding his home.
"Several soldiers forced their way in and beat him with their rifle
butts. He ran out of the house to get away from them. Soldiers shot
him a few meters away and he died immediately," the report said,
citing witnesses in Ramadi.
Many Iraqis complain troops use heavy-handed tactics that humiliate
householders when conducting weapons searches.
"There continue to be many reports of members of the coalition forces
engaging in house searches and damaging or destroying property without
justification," Amnesty said.
"There are also numerous reports of confiscation of property,
including large sums of money, upon arrest."
Copyright 2003 Reuters Ltd
