Sunni party demands torture claim probe

IRAQ'S main Sunni Arab political party yesterday demanded an international investigation into allegations that security forces illegally detained and tortured suspected insurgents at secret jails in Baghdad.

Omar Heikal of the Iraqi Islamic Party said it was now clear that majority Shiites in the US-backed government were trying to suppress minority Sunnis ahead of the December 15 parliamentary elections.

"Our information indicates that this is not the only place where torture is taking place," he said, reading an official party statement. The party "calls on the United Nations, the Arab League and humanitarian bodies to denounce these clear human rights violations, and we demand a fair, international probe so that all those who are involved in such practices will get their just punishment."

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari confirmed on Tuesday that more than 173 Interior Ministry prisoners were found malnourished and possibly tortured by government security forces at a Baghdad lock-up.

Al-Jaafari's comments came a day after an Interior Ministry official said an investigation will be opened into allegations that its officers tortured suspects detained in connection with the insurgency.

"I was informed that there were 173 detainees held at an Interior Ministry prison and they appear to be malnourished. There is also some talk that they were subjected to some kind of torture," al-Jaafari told reporters.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said US and Iraqi forces went into the facility in Baghdad suspecting that individuals there might not have been appropriately handled or managed, and "they found things that concerned them."

Tariq al-Hashimi, the secretary-general of the Iraqi Islamic Party, held up photos of the bodies of people who appear to have been subjected to torture and said: "This is what your Sunni brothers are being subjected to."

He said his group had sent complaints in the past to the government, but had got no response.

"We told them that if you don't have information, then where are our brothers who were kidnapped by people wearing your uniforms, using your telecommunication equipment and driving your cars," he said.

He said that if the investigation proves that the interior minister was involved, he should resign. He also said the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, should "condemn these acts and stop covering" for the Shiite minister.

Saad Farhan, a 40-year-old trader in Ramadi, said his brother and cousin were detained by Interior Ministry forces and that some detainees were taken to building raided by US forces.

"Some government officials want to keep the Sunnis away from the next elections by terrorising us," he said.