[prisoner-rights] Iraq: Thousands of detainees denied their basic rights

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE
AI Index: MDE 14/005/2006
6 March 2006

Thousands of detainees being held by the US-led Multinational Force (MNF)
in Iraq are trapped in a system of arbitrary detention that denies them
their basic rights, Amnesty International said in a report published
today. At the same time, there is increasing evidence of torture of
detainees by the Iraqi security forces that the MNF underpins.

"Three years after it toppled Saddam Hussain, the US-led alliance has
failed to put in place measures which respect the basic rights of
detainees under its control and to safeguard them from possible torture or
other abuses. The system of detention that has been established is
arbitrary and a recipe for possible abuse," said Hassiba Hadj-Sahraoui,
Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa
Programme.

Some detainees have now been held without charge or trial by the MNF for
more than two years without being given an adequate opportunity to
challenge the reasons for their imprisonment. They face the prospect of
being held for years more on the basis of information to which they do not
have access. The systems the US and UK use to review detainees' cases fail
to meet international standards, including the requirement for court
oversight. Detainees are also routinely denied access to lawyers and their
families.

The report Beyond Abu Ghraib: Detention and torture in Iraq focuses on
human rights violations for which the MNF is directly responsible but
points also to mounting evidence of torture by Iraqi security forces
operating alongside the MNF, including the so-called Wolf Brigade that
reports to the Iraqi Interior Ministry. There have also been cases in
which detainees have died in the custody of Iraqi forces. Amnesty
International is concerned that these cases and torture allegations have
not been properly investigated and those responsible held to account. US
and UK investigations into abuses by their forces have also generally
focused on junior military personnel and sentences have failed to reflect
the gravity of the offences.

It is imperative that both the MNF and the Iraqi authorities take urgent
steps to reassert the importance of fundamental human rights if there is
to be any hope of halting Iraq's slide towards ever increasing violence
and sectarianism. In particular, they must ensure that detainees' rights
are respected in full, that all allegations of torture or other abuses are
thoroughly and promptly investigated, and that those responsible for
ordering or carrying out abuses, however senior, are brought to justice.

"International human rights law applicable in Iraq as well as domestic
Iraqi legislation contain safeguards to protect the fundamental rights of
people in detention – including the right not to be subjected to torture
or ill-treatment. It is high time for all parties to the conflict to start
observing the laws to which they have been and remain legally bound," said
Hassiba Hadj-Sahraoui.

For a copy of the report, Beyond Abu Ghraib: Detention and torture in
Iraq, please see: http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engmde140012006