We've all read countless stories about the coalition forces' detainees in Iraq, from the horrifying
Abu Ghraib accounts to a variety of other stories.
However, the BBC News website has something very different.
They've published an interview with Peggy Gish, a 62 year old American, who, with other members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, kept records of her interviews with Iraqi prisoners.
Continued...
Forgive me for being unable to improve on the title of the original article.
Here are some excerpts from the interview.
Eyewitness: Taking detainee testimony in Iraq
We were not allowed to go into prisons, so our contact was with the families of detainees and freed detainees. We got very careful testimonies.
We were hearing some of the same stories from people all over Iraq, so we were fairly certain what we were hearing was accurate.
We heard about very violent house raids in the middle of the night, in which US soldiers would storm in, and if the men did not get down immediately, they would knock them down and beat them.
Then their house would be ransacked, often with property damage. Many would report that at the end of that time jewellery and money would be missing. Then the men of the household would be taken away.
[snip]
Then we began to hear stories of a very violent interrogation process. Men would report being kept in very painful positions for hours at a time, being deprived of sleep and water and food, some kept out in the hot summer sun for hours.
We also heard about sexual abuse and beatings when they were being questioned. If they did not give information about an explosion or something they would be knocked down, kicked in the groin, and hurt in other ways.
These men were held in Abu Ghraib and in prisons across the country. We think it is better since the Abu Ghraib scandal - we are not hearing the stories of overt sexual abuse - but people are still being humiliated and there is still a lot of physical brutality.
The following, although not surprising, is still infuriating:
Many men are held because they happened to be on the street, even blocks away, from an explosion. The US military would round up hundreds of men in the area to try to find the few that caused the blast.
In fact, we came to the conclusion that 80% to 90% of the prisoners had never been involved in any violent action. This is an estimate that tallies with the estimates of other groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
The article summarizes the main complaints of the Christian Peacemaker Teams:
- Abuse reported by detainees at Abu Ghraib, Camp Bucca and Baghdad International Airport (BIAP) detention facility, and initial intake facilities
- Improvements since April 2004 but reports of abuse continue
- Only a small proportion of detainees face criminal charges; remainder are in legal limbo
- Difficult to find information on detainees or arrange visits, though situation improved
- Final fate of detainees still in hands of Multinational Forces
- Property taken in house raids not returned and no receipt given
- Detainees report overcrowding, lack of medical facilities, poor food and water in detention facilities, but improvements reported