Red Cross claim abuse of prisoners was systematic

THE international Red Cross saw US military intelligence officers mistreating prisoners under interrogation at Abu Ghraib prison and said up to 90% of Iraqi detainees were arrested by mistake.

US President George Bush said the mistreatment "was the wrongdoing of a few," but the report by the International Committee of the Red Cross backs up with detail the neutral agency's contention that US prisoner abuse was broad and part of a system, "not individual acts".

The report said "high value detainees" were singled out for special mistreatment. The report did not specify who they were, but it was thought they included some of the 55 "deck of cards" top officials of the former regime of Saddam Hussein.

"Since June, 2003, over a hundred 'high value detainees' have been held for nearly 23 hours a day in strict solitary confinement in small concrete cells devoid of daylight," said the report. "ICRC delegates directly witnessed and documented a variety of methods used to secure the cooperation of the persons deprived of their liberty with their interrogators."

The delegates saw how detainees were kept "completely naked in totally empty concrete cells and in total darkness."

"Upon witnessing such cases, the ICRC interrupted its visits and requested an explanation from the authorities," the report said. "The military intelligence officer in charge of the interrogation explained that this practice was 'part of the process.'"

This apparently meant that detainees were progressively given clothing, bedding, lighting and other items in exchange for co-operation. It said it found evidence supporting prisoners' allegations of other forms of abuse during arrest, initial detention and interrogation. Among the evidence were burns, bruises and other injuries consistent with the abuse prisoners alleged, it said.

The 24-page document, confirmed by the ICRC as authentic after it was published by the Wall Street Journal, said the abuses were primarily during the interrogation stage by military intelligence. Once the detainees were moved to regular prison facilities the abuses typically stopped. The report cites abuses some "tantamount to torture" including brutality, hooding, humiliation and threats of "imminent execution."

Pierre Kraehenbuehl, ICRC director of operations, said last Friday the report had been given to US officials last February, but it only summarised what the agency had been telling US officials between March and November, 2003, "either in direct face-to-face conversations or in written interventions".

Kraehenbuehl said the abuse of prisoners represented more than isolated acts, and the problems were not limited to the Abu Ghraib prison. "We were dealing here with a broad pattern, not individual acts. There was a pattern and a system," he said, declining to give further details.