Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Interior Ministry employees charged with torture
Security
Iraq's Interior Ministry said Tuesday that it has charged 57 employees, including a police general, in the alleged torture of hundreds of detainees at a prison in eastern Baghdad. Police Brig. Abdel-Karim Khalaf said the charges marked the first time officers in Iraq's post-occupation police force had been charged with torture. Those charged included 19 officers, 20 noncommissioned officers and 17 patrolmen or civilian employees, he said. All have been removed from their jobs, Khalaf said. The names of the accused were being withheld.
Torture is considered widespread among the poorly trained police force, which has suffered heavy losses at the hands of Sunni insurgents, Shiite militiamen and criminal gangs. Khalaf said the torture had been recorded at a prison in eastern Baghdad called simply Site No. 4. He declined to give details about specific abuses. "The crime is the same regardless of the kind or form of the torture," Khalaf said.
Previously, discipline over such allegations mainly was limited to dismissal and transfers, despite evidence that many policemen on the Shiite-dominated force were abetting the work of sectarian death squads blamed for killing scores of Sunnis in revenge attacks after the bombing of a major Shiite shrine in February.
Previously, discipline over such allegations mainly was limited to dismissal and transfers, despite evidence that many policemen on the Shiite-dominated force were abetting the work of sectarian death squads blamed for killing scores of Sunnis in revenge attacks after the bombing of a major Shiite shrine in February.
COMMENT: Site 4 is allegedly the same secret detention facility that was discovered in Jadiriya by U.S. forces; the same district of Baghdad that hosts the HQ of the SCIRI and its Badr militia, so it is feasible that many, if not most, of the officers in charge of that facility were members or affiliates of the SCIRI. It is interesting that they are being brought to justice, almost too good to be true - particularly as the militias have still not been disbanded as promised. It could be a gesture to appease the Americans and Sunnis as the Shias are becoming nervous about a U.S. - Sunni 'alliance' which would result in the Shias losing the amount of power they currently have. It could also be the result of yet another chasm between the Shias and is merely revenge. COMMENT ENDS.
