WASHINGTON: The top US general in Iraq was aware in June of reports that Iraqi security forces had abused prisoners in their custody, months before US forces in November found a bunker filled with detainees badly beaten by Iraqi personnel, a memo obtained on Wednesday showed. âOver the past several months, I have received reports of serious physical abuse of detainees by ISF (Iraqi Security Forces),â Army Gen George Casey, commander of US forces in Iraq, said in a June 22 memo obtained by Reuters.
âI have forwarded those reports to the Iraqi ministries of defence and interior for appropriate action,â Casey added. The memo did not state the nature of the abuse. During a raid at a secret Baghdad bunker, US forces on Nov 13 found 173 men and teen-age boys, many of them malnourished, beaten and showing signs of torture.
| So he gave the Iraqi government an opportunity to fix it and they didn't. That's when our troops went to that prison and pulled out the prisoners. |
After the Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabor days later played down the incident, the US Embassy in Baghdad said such abuses will not be tolerated and, âThe Iraqi government must take measures to ensure this kind of thing does not happen again.â Casey added that abuse of detainees by the American-trained Iraqi security forces âis a violation of Iraqi law and counterproductive to all of our intended efforts here.â
| "And it had better not happen again." |
In his memo, Casey said he expected US personnel in Iraq to be proactive in encouraging, training and mentoring Iraqi security forces on the respect for human rights in the treatment and interrogation of detainees. The memo stated that US personnel also had the responsibility to âpromptly report the details through their chain of command so those acts can be appropriately addressed with Iraqi government officials.â Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wants to nail down specifically what Casey meant by saying âall reasonable action.â
Rumsfeld has asked military commanders to devise clear rules for how US personnel worldwide should take action if they see detainees being abused by foreign forces outside the United States. âItâs for him to better understand what the policies and procedures are, and to also make sure that we understand that the sergeant, the private, the lieutenant, the captain on the ground have a clear understanding of what theyâre responsibilities are,â Whitman said. |