[Peace-discuss] watch for this one in the US press

[Ricky Baldwin]

Iraqi POWs say they were tortured by coalition forces:
Amnesty

May 16, 2003

LONDON (AFP) - At least 20 Iraqi prisoners of war,
including civilians, said they had been tortured by
British and US troops in central and southern Iraq, a
spokesman for International Human Rights group Amnesty
International said. 

"As of Wednesday we had interviewed 20 people,"
Amnesty researcher Said Boumedouha said, referring to
prisoners of war who alleged they had been tortured by
the British and US military in Nasiriyah and around
Basra. 

When asked, the researcher insisted that torture was
the correct word to use for the handling of the
prisoners, many of whom may have been suspected of
being members of Iraqi militia. 

After returning from Amnesty's first fact-finding
mission in Iraq since 1993, Boumedouha said the
alleged mistreatment included "beatings with fists,
with feet, also with weapons." 

"In one case we are talking about electric shocks
being used against a man and in others people are
being beaten for the whole night and are still being
kicked and their teeth broken, I think you would call
that torture," he said. 

The man claiming to have received electric shocks was
believed to have been a Saudi who had entered the
country from Syria during the war and was suspected of
being a volunteer for president Saddam Hussein. 

Boumedouha acknowledged that Amnesty International had
not presented any of the claims to British or US
forces for any response. 

"We still have people on the ground in Iraq and we
will continue to gain testimonies," he said. 

"Once that is complete we hope to provide a full
dossier to present to the British and American
authorities as well as publishing ourselves," he said.


Amnesty International estimated up to half of the 20
people he interviewed were civilians and the rest
military. 

The researcher said all the people he interviewed were
free at the time he met them and most had been
detained in and around Basra. 


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