Iraqi civilian prisoners of war claim they were tortured by coalition forces

IRAQI civilian prisoners of war have claimed they were tortured by British and US troops after being captured, Amnesty International said yesterday.

The claims came as US-led coalition forces reported the capture of Adel Abdullah Mahdi al-Duri

al-Tikriti, another Iraqi official on the 55 most-wanted list.

A researcher for Amnesty International said he had interviewed at least 20 former prisoners of war, including civilians and Iraqi soldiers, and said they all told similar stories of beatings while in custody.

Said Boumedouha, a researcher with Amnesty International, said several people claimed to have been beaten throughout the night and at least one man claimed to have received electro-shock torture.

However, he acknowledged that Amnesty International had not presented any of the claims to British or US forces for any response.

He said: "We still have people on the ground in Iraq and we will continue to gain testimonies.

"Once that is complete we hope to provide a full dossier to present to the British and American authorities as well as publishing ourselves."

Mr Boumedouha estimated up to half of the 20 people he interviewed were civilians and the rest military.

He said some were arrested while hostilities were still ongoing but others were detained once the war had finished.

Meanwhile, between 15,000 and 30,000 Ba'ath Party officials will be banned entirely from any future Iraqi government, a senior US official said yesterday, adding that the move aims to "put a stake" in the heart of Saddam Hussein's former ruling party.

The official from the US Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the new policy would help Iraq move on from the legacy of Saddam's regime.

"The Ba'ath Party in Iraq is finished," the official said. "We mean to be sure that by this process, we will put a stake in its heart."

The reconstruction team's purging efforts, which the official said would begin within days, are the next step in the United States' vow to eliminate Ba'athism from postwar Iraq.

Reconstruction officials in Iraq are trying to get the country's ministries and civil service working again, and are struggling to make sure they purge Saddam sympathisers without gutting the entire bureaucracy.

"We are indeed serious. This is an indication of how serious we are," the official said. "It will come out right."

As many as 1.5 million of Iraq's 24 million people belonged to the party under Saddam.

But only about 25,000 to 50,000 were full-fledged members the elite targeted by US officials.

Many Iraqi civil servants could obtain jobs only after making affiliations with the Ba'ath Party.