Red Cross says it flagged abuses

By Lee Keath
The Associated Press

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The Human Rights Organization in Iraq said it got little response from U.S. administrators, but the Red Cross said U.S. officials made some changes after it pointed to specific practices at the Abu Ghraib prison.

The U.S. military began an investigation at Abu Ghraib in January, after a U.S. guard told commanders of abuses inflicted by colleagues. The investigation has expanded into a look at whether there was systematic abuse at facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan. The scandal mushroomed after photos became public last week showing abuses at Abu Ghraib.

Adel al-Allami, an official at the Iraqi human-rights organization, said his group tried for months last year to get an audience with U.S. occupation officials. He said it wanted to present a list of reported abuses at prisons and complaints about mistreatment of Iraqis during U.S. raids on homes in the search for insurgents.

Photographs of prisoner abuse NOTE: These images are graphic and may be disturbing. They have been provided as part of a news service and have not been independently verified. · See images

"We knew of many human-rights violations and sent a number of memos," al-Allami said, adding that the group had reports of detainees being beaten and deprived of sleep.

The organization asked repeatedly for meetings with coalition officials, but each time officials "would give excuses for not meeting," al-Allami said.

The group finally got a meeting three weeks ago and presented requests for compensation for mistreated Iraqis, he said. "The treatment of these issues has not been positive at all," he said.

Also yesterday, Britain's Ministry of Defense said it is questioning a soldier who has made new claims that British soldiers abused Iraqi prisoners. The soldier, who was not identified, had gone to British police with allegations of mistreatment.

Britain, meanwhile, is investigating published photos allegedly showing its soldiers threatening and urinating on prisoners in Iraq. The Daily Mirror published the photos last week, but rival newspapers have suggested the photographs might be fake.

Red Cross teams have been visiting Abu Ghraib every five or six weeks since last year, the organization's regional spokeswoman, Nada Doumani, said by telephone from Amman, Jordan.

"We were aware of what was going on, and based on our findings, we have repeatedly requested the U.S. authorities to take corrective action," she said.

She said U.S. officials made some changes but added that they were not necessarily connected directly to "this issue about having naked people like this or like that, or homosexual practices."

She said Red Cross regulations prevented her from being specific about what practices the organization complained about or what corrections were taken.

Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned the international Red Cross president, Jakob Kellenberger, yesterday to assure him that the U.S. government was dealing with the abuses.

Six U.S. guards have been charged and seven other officials have been disciplined for abuses investigated in January. But since then, evidence has grown that abuse was not an isolated occurrence. The Army disclosed Tuesday that it was looking into 10 prisoner deaths and said two other deaths had been ruled homicides. Wednesday, an intelligence official said the CIA inspector general was examining two additional deaths.

In a related move, the Pentagon has sent investigators to review operations at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where officials confirmed that two guards have been disciplined for using excessive force against prisoners.

Material from Reuters is included in this report.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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