Oliver Burkeman in Washington
Saturday May 17, 2003
The Guardian

Former Iraqi prisoners of war have accused British and American troops of torturing them in custody, blindfolding them before kicking and beating them with weapons for long periods.
Investigators for the human rights group Amnesty International said statements taken from 20 former detainees even included one claim, made by a Saudi man, that he had been subjected to electric shocks by his US captors.

"In one case we are talking about electric shocks being used against a man ... [and] if you keep beating somebody for the whole night and somebody is bleeding and you are breaking teeth, it is more than beating," Amnesty researcher, Said Boumedouha, told a press conference in London yesterday, after returning from Iraq. "I think that is torture."

Mr Boumedouha spoke of one interviewee who claimed to have been "beaten up for a whole night, who was bleeding but they wouldn't even give him water".

His instinct, he said, was that they were telling the truth. "But to what extent, and the details of it all ... that we are still trying to establish."

He added that they still had many interviews to conduct.

The beatings allegedly took place while the captured men - suspected of being members of the Iraqi militia - were being processed at bases in Basra or Nassiriya before being transferred to a detention facility at the southern port city of Umm Qasr. About half of those involved were civilians, Amnesty estimated.

Lesley Warner, an Amnesty spokeswoman, stressed the preliminary nature of the group's findings, and said it would carry out further interviews before presenting a formal dossier to governments in London or Washington.

But Britain's Ministry of Defence denied the claims.

"Those who were detained by British forces were treated in line with the Geneva conventions and we had regular visits by the International Committee for the Red Cross," its statement read. "If there are allegations then we will have to look at them and see if we can investigate."

The electric-shock allegation "sounds to me unbelievable - we just don't do that", said Navy Lieutenant Dan Hetlage, a Pentagon spokesman. "We act in a humane manner towards the enemy prisoners of war that we hold.

"The ICRC is being allowed to conduct a regular series of inspection visits at the facility in Umm Qasr ... we adhere to the Geneva convention because we would want the enemy to."

On the other hand, he said, soldiers were allowed to defend themselves if prisoners became "unruly".

"They are allowed to bring the person under control, but that's about the only time you really have to get physical," he said. "We had thousands of prisoners, and not a whole lot of complaints. They're better off now than [under the fallen regime], getting medical care probably for the first time in years."

But Lt Hetlage said that if Amnesty could provide evidence or corroborate the stories of the prisoners, "investigations will be conducted".