Iraqi tools of torture revealed

TOOLS of torture that Saddam Hussein’s son, Uday, used to punish underperforming Iraqi athletes were displayed yesterday at a Baghdad sports stadium in advance of the Olympic Games next month.

Journalists were shown mediaeval-style torture equipment, including an “iron maiden-like” casket with metal spikes fixed to the inside that athletes had been forced into and chain whips with steel barbs the size of tennis balls attached to the end.

“During the old regime, Uday was looking for results and he wanted winners. He didn’t like second place,” said Talib Mutan, an Iraqi Olympics Committee official.

“If the athletes didn’t come in first, they were punished. And he would punish the people around the athletes, their managers and coaches included,” Mr Mutan added.

Uday ran the Olympic committee while his father ruled Iraq and was killed by American forces last July along with his elder brother, Qusay.

Mr Mutan said athletes who earned Uday’s wrath were tortured in various ways.

These included beatings, sleep deprivation and being forced to walk barefoot over hot asphalt during Iraq’s searing summer.

The official said there had been recent suggestions made that the torture equipment should go on display at a museum, but no final decision on the tools of torture had been made.

The International Olympic Committee reinstated Iraq’s national Olympic committee in February, enabling Iraqi athletes to compete at the upcoming Athens Olympics.

It had been suspended in early 2003.