May 6, 2004
Red Cross Says Repeatedly Warned U.S. on Iraq Jail
Reuters

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday it had repeatedly urged the United States to take "corrective action" at a Baghdad jail at the center of a scandal over abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

By Richard Waddington

GENEVA (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday it had repeatedly urged the United States to take "corrective action" at a Baghdad jail at the center of a scandal over abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

The Geneva-based humanitarian agency, mandated under international treaties to visit detainees, has had regular access to Abu Ghraib prison since U.S.-led forces began using it last year, said chief spokeswoman Antonella Notari.

"The ICRC, aware of the situation, and based on its findings, has repeatedly asked the U.S. authorities to take corrective action," she told Reuters.

Notari declined to give details of what the ICRC had seen during the visits, which take place every five to six weeks, or about its reports to the U.S. authorities.

Asked about the ICRC alerts, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: "When they raise concerns, we take those concerns seriously... When it comes to the Red Cross, there are actions that have been taken."

"And when allegations of prisoner abuse came to light more recently, the military in the region immediately began taking steps to ... see just who was responsible for these actions and take steps to punish those individuals."

U.N. INVESTIGATION

The United Nations (news - web sites) said it had written to U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) and the Iraqi governor, Paul Bremer, seeking information on human rights in Iraq (news - web sites) over the past year.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, which has promised a report by end-May, said its investigators were ready to visit Baghdad to meet coalition and Iraqi leaders.

The ICRC, which has been operating since the late 19th century, keeps a public silence about what it hears from detainees as the price for gaining access to jails in trouble spots around the world from Chechnya (news - web sites) to West Africa.

Pictures of grinning U.S. soldiers abusing naked Iraqis at Abu Ghraib -- the largest prison in the country and notorious for torture under Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) -- have sparked an international outcry.

President Bush (news - web sites) told Jordan's King Abdullah he was sorry for the humiliation suffered by Iraqi prisoners and their families.

"I told him I was sorry for the humiliation suffered by the Iraqi prisoners and the humiliation suffered by their families," Bush said at the White House after a meeting with the Jordanian monarch.

"I assured him that Americans like me didn't appreciate what we saw," he added.

WANTON CRIMINAL ABUSES

Abu Ghraib jail was also been the focus of a separate earlier probe by a U.S. general.

Maj.-Gen. Antonio Taguba's report, covering October to December last year and completed on March 3, cited incidents of "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses."

The ICRC's Notari dismissed some U.S. media reports suggesting that the Red Cross had not had access to a special wing in the jail where the abuse took place.

"To the best of our knowledge we have had access to all sectors," she said.

And she rejected a proposal from the new head of the jail, Maj.-Gen. Geoffrey Miller, that the ICRC set up a permanent presence there, saying: "We are not going to be part of their organization."

The ICRC has visited thousands of prisoners under the control of U.S. and British forces, which are also being investigated after a London newspaper published pictures of a soldier apparently urinating on an Iraqi detainee.

But Notari declined to comment on what officials had seen in British-run jails.

Under the Geneva Conventions on prisoners and the treatment of civilians in wartime, the ICRC must be allowed to interview detainees in private and on a regular basis.

On these terms, it has carried out two visits to Saddam, in U.S. custody since his capture shortly before Christmas.

"It is important that people understand our role, which is to be present and to have a dialogue with the authorities," Notari said.

But on a few occasions the Red Cross has broken its vow of silence, because either the authority concerned has issued a partial account of the ICRC's findings or has simply failed to take any action after a long period.

The ICRC recently expressed mounting frustration over the situation of Afghan and other detainees at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, announcing that its concerns about conditions and treatment were not being addressed.

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