ARAB-US RELATIONS - Mar 9 - US Said To Be Close To Shutting Abu Ghraib.
The US military says the prison at Abu Ghraib, Saddam
Hussein's torture centre that became a symbol of shame for the
American occupation of Iraq, is to close within months. Its 4,500
inmates, held on suspicion of insurgent activity, will be transferred to
a new facility at the nearby Baghdad airport military base and other
camps, a spokesman said. Purpose-built new cells at Camp Cropper,
presently an exclusive compound for Saddam and 100 or so other
high-security inmates, will provide better conditions, US officials
said. In all, 14,589 people are held in four US sites in Iraq, more than
half of them at Camp Bucca in the southern desert. "We will
transfer operations from Abu Ghraib to the new Camp Cropper once
construction is completed there", Lt Col Keir-Kevin Curry told
Reuters. "No precise dates have been set, but the plan is to
accomplish this within the next two to three months". The buildings
at Abu Ghraib, which include the original 1960s, British-built jail and
surrounding tented camp that has sprung up under US control, will, he
said, go to the Iraqi government, which already operates part of the
site as a prison. By some accounts as many as 4,000 people were executed
in the prison in 1984, earning the western Baghdad suburb a sinister
reputation among Iraqis living under Saddam. But it was photographs
published in 2004 of US soldiers abusing prisoners, some naked, or
threatened with snarling dogs, that gave it global notoriety and made it
a touchstone for critics of the occupation of Iraq. The bulk of inmates
are minority Sunni Arabs, the dominant community under Saddam, who are
accused of backing an insurgency against US forces and the new,
Shi'ite-led government. The detention system is a focus of Sunni
anger at the new order. The move to close Abu Ghraib, charged with
symbolism, comes as US diplomats try to persuade Sunnis to join a
coalition government to prevent a slide into sectarian civil war.
Critics, however, dismissed the significance of the closure, since the
detentions, criticised by both the Iraqi government and the UN, will
continue as before. Conviction rates are below 20%. Inmates can spend
many months inside with little recourse to legal process. Eight
soldiers, including Private Lynndie England who was photographed holding
an unclothed Iraqi on a dog leash, were convicted of abuses. Two were
jailed for more than eight years. Pres Bush described them as "bad
apples" and denied there was systematic abuse. The US military says
that in fighting its enemies it does employ interrogation techniques
that include the use of "stress positions" but denies torture.
The publication of previously unseen photographs from Abu Ghraib last
month, however, revived debate both in Iraq and around the world about
US practices aimed at countering threats from guerrilla groups,
particularly Islamist al Qaeda. Among these are detentions at Guantanamo
Bay in Cuba. Iraq's human rights minister demanded the closure of
Abu Ghraib and Iraqi officials want control of the prisoners. US policy
is to hand over prisons to Iraqi control once they are satisfied the
authorities are capable of this. But after criticism of abuses in
Iraqi-run facilities, including by the US State Department which this
week accused the Iraqi police of torturing detainees, that prospect has
worried relatives of some of those in US custody in Iraq. James Zogby,
Pres of the Arab American Institute, said the US had undermined its
credibility as a bastion of human rights by taking over Abu Ghraib from
Saddam: It was ... stupid to even use the place in the first place ...
To many questions are not going to be answered by closing it".
Mohammad Ayoob, a professor of international relations at Michigan State
University, said: What happened in Abu Ghraib in ter of the pictures
being seen all around the world, closing it down is not going to wipe
away any of those images". US Representative Jane Harman, a
California Democrat, said: Abu Ghraib has been a moral stain on our
efforts in Iraq, and on the US' image around the world, and I am
glad to see it close. But this does not erase the damage done".
"The world should never again see the type of abuse that took place
at Abu Ghraib", Harman added.
COPYRIGHT 2006 Input Solutions
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2006, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.
|
|
Reader Opinion