[lbo-talk] Iraq's Child Prisoners

[snit snat]

Sunday Herald - 01 August 2004
Iraq's Child Prisoners
A Sunday Herald investigation has discovered that coalition forces are 
holding more than 100 children in jails such as Abu Ghraib. Witnesses claim 
that the detainees – some as young as 10 – are also being subjected to rape 
and torture
By Neil Mackay

It was early last October that Kasim Mehaddi Hilas says he witnessed the 
rape of a boy prisoner aged about 15 in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in 
Iraq. "The kid was hurting very bad and they covered all the doors with 
sheets," he said in a statement given to investigators probing prisoner 
abuse in Abu Ghraib. "Then, when I heard the screaming I climbed the door 
 
and I saw [the soldier's name is deleted] who was wearing a military 
uniform." Hilas, who was himself threatened with being sexually assaulted 
in Abu Graib, then describes in horrific detail how the soldier raped "the 
little kid".

In another witness statement, passed to the Sunday Herald, former prisoner 
Thaar Salman Dawod said: "[I saw] two boys naked and they were cuffed 
together face to face and [a US soldier] was beating them and a group of 
guards were watching and taking pictures and there was three female 
soldiers laughing at the prisoners. The prisoners, two of them, were young."

It's not certain exactly how many children are being held by coalition 
forces in Iraq, but a Sunday Herald investigation suggests there are up to 
107. Their names are not known, nor is where they are being kept, how long 
they will be held or what has happened to them during their detention.

Proof of the widespread arrest and detention of children in Iraq by US and 
UK forces is contained in an internal Unicef report written in June. The 
report has – surprisingly – not been made public. A key section on child 
protection, headed "Children in Conflict with the Law or with Coalition 
Forces", reads: "In July and August 2003, several meetings were conducted 
with CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) 
 and Ministry of Justice to 
address issues related to juvenile justice and the situation of children 
detained by the coalition forces 
 Unicef is working through a variety of 
channels to try and learn more about conditions for children who are 
imprisoned or detained, and to ensure that their rights are respected."

Another section reads: "Information on the number, age, gender and 
conditions of incarceration is limited. In Basra and Karbala children 
arrested for alleged activities targeting the occupying forces are reported 
to be routinely transferred to an internee facility in Um Qasr. The 
categorisation of these children as 'internees' is worrying since it 
implies indefinite holding without contact with family, expectation of 
trial or due process."

The report also states: "A detention centre for children was established in 
Baghdad, where according to ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) 
a significant number of children were detained. Unicef was informed that 
the coalition forces were planning to transfer all children in adult 
facilities to this 'specialised' child detention centre. In July 2003, 
Unicef requested a visit to the centre but access was denied. Poor security 
in the area of the detention centre has prevented visits by independent 
observers like the ICRC since last December.

"The perceived unjust detention of Iraqi males, including youths, for 
suspected activities against the occupying forces has become one of the 
leading causes for the mounting frustration among Iraqi youths and the 
potential for radicalisation of this population group."

Journalists in Germany have also been investigating the detention and abuse 
of children in Iraq. One reporter, Thomas Reutter of the TV programme 
Report Mainz, interviewed a US army sergeant called Samuel Provance, who is 
banned from speaking about his six months stationed in Abu Ghraib but told 
Reutter of how one 16-year-old Iraqi boy was arrested.

"He was terribly afraid," Provance said. "He had the skinniest arms I've 
ever seen. He was trembling all over. His wrists were so thin we couldn't 
even put handcuffs on him. Right when I saw him for the first time, and 
took him for interrogation, I felt sorry for him.

"The interrogation specialists poured water over him and put him into a 
car. Then they drove with him through the night, and at that time it was 
very, very cold. Then they smeared him with mud and showed him to his 
father, who was also in custody. They had tried out other interrogation 
methods on him, but he wasn't to be brought to talk. The interrogation 
specialists told me, after the father had seen his son in this state, his 
heart broke. He wept and promised to tell them everything they wanted to know."

more http://www.sundayherald.com/print43796





"We're in a fucking stagmire."

       --Little Carmine, 'The Sopranos'