Target Iraq: American Human Rights under Scrutiny
After one of the bloodiest months of the Iraqi occupation, evidence that the US and the UK have lost their cool started to emerge. Last week newspapers printed pictures that depicted alleged abuse of detainees in Basra and Baghdad. A report into allegations of prisoners abuse by US forces in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison has uncovered "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses". The report found that detainees were threatened with loaded pistol, beaten and sexually abused, photographed in humiliating positions, threatened with unmuzzled dogs, and subjected to brutality and humiliation. In a statement on an Arab tv network, President Bush publicly condemned the abuse on inmates, adding: "what took place in that prison does not represent the America that I know." (BBC's Dozens of abuse inquiries under way, Report into Baghdad prison abuse, Bush calls Iraq abuse 'abhorrent', Blair condemns Iraq abuse photos, US troops face Iraq abuse charges)
The UN Commission on Human Rights criticized the tortures and urged the Coalition Forces to apply to detainees the rules and norms enshrined in Articles 9 and 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and 9 and 14 of the civil and political rights Covenant. As for the plans of UN involvement in Iraq, they are still ambivalent. (UN news Iraq: UN human rights body calls on US, UK to grant detainees legal rights; IPS's U.N. Experts Call for Probe of Coalition Abuses in Iraq, U.N. Ambivalent Over its Ability to Salvage Iraq)
Follow up: Embattled Rumsfeld wins support, Bush 'sorry' for prisoner abuse, Action pending on alleged abuse, Commanders blamed for Iraq abuses