- George Bush today expressed his "disgust" at
pictures that emerged last night showing Iraqi prisoners being tortured
and humiliated by American soldiers.
-
- The US president was asked about a series of photographs,
one showing Iraqi prisoners naked except for hoods covering their heads,
stacked in a human pyramid, which have led to criminal charges being brought
against six US soldiers.
-
- "I share a deep disgust that those prisoners were
treated the way they were treated," he said at a press conference
one year after his speech proclaiming the end of "major combat operations"
in Iraq.
-
- "Their treatment does not reflect the nature of
the American people. That's not the way we do things in America. I didn't
like it one bit."
-
- Earlier, Downing Street said Tony Blair had been "appalled"
by the actions shown in the photographs.
-
- No 10 said the behaviour shown was in "direct contravention
of all policy under which the coalition operates".
-
- Mr Blair's official spokesman said: "The US army
spokesman has said this morning that he is appalled, that those responsible
have let their fellow soldiers down, and those are views that we would
associate the UK government with."
-
- Asked if the prime minister was appalled, the spokesman
replied: "The government view is the same as that of the US army."
-
- Earlier this week the prime minister had gone out on
a limb to unequivocally defend the US army and its controversial tactics
during the seige of Falluja, which is estimated to have left around 800
civilians dead. The US strategy has provoked intense criticism from his
own backbenchers, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.
-
- The pictures - believed to date from November or December
last year, but only broadcast last night - show a hooded prisoner with
a noose around his neck and electric wires attached to his hands, naked
hooded male prisoners with their hands behind their heads, grinning male
and female US soldiers behind a pile of live hooded prisoners, and a smoking
female soldier pointing at the genitals of a naked, hooded male prisoner.
-
- Amnesty International said today it had received numerous
other reports of torture by coalition forces, of which "virtually
none ... has been adequately investigated by the authorities".
-
- The human rights organisation said: "Our extensive
research in Iraq suggests that this is not an isolated incident. It is
not enough for the USA to react only once images have hit the television
screens."
-
- "There must be a fully independent, impartial and
public investigation into all allegations of torture. Nothing less will
suffice."
-
- This morning Mr Blair's human rights envoy to Iraq, Ann
Clwyd, also branded pictures of American troops torturing Iraqi prisoners
"absolutely terrible" - but insisted the abuses were "only
a small number of cases".
-
- Ms Clwyd, whose passionate denunciation of the Saddam
Hussein regime helped win over many Labour backbenchers ahead of last year's
vote on the war, revealed she had visited the jail in question, Abu Ghraib,
last year.
-
- She told the BBC that a "very senior" White
House official had told her US troops did not abuse Iraqi prisoners. She
added that: "The people in charge did not know this was going on."
-
- And she insisted: "On a small number of cases, horrible
that they are, you cannot compare that with the tens of thousands of people
that Saddam Hussein was responsible for executing and torturing."
-
- She said she had raised criticisms with the general in
charge of the prison during her recent visit, she revealed.
-
- She told the Today programme: "I was particularly
concerned that so many prisoners are being held there over a long period
of time, that their families quite often don't know they are even there."
-
- Ms Clywd's group, Indict, founded in 1996, campaigned
for an international tribunal to try Saddam's Ba'athist regime for war
crimes, and first made public the allegations that prisoners were fed feet
first into an industrial shredder at the same prison, during Saddam's regime.
-
- The Conservative shadow foreign secretary, Michael Ancram,
called the behaviour "unacceptable and very damaging to building confidence
in Iraq".
-
- He welcomed the "swift and firm" action apparently
being taken against those responsible. responsible.
-
- The Labour MP John McDonnell, who opposed the war, said
that the US-led occupation of Iraq was now discredited.
-
- He told the programme: "They [the pictures] are
very, very shocking. I think this is further evidence which builds up on
top of the attack on Falluja which is discrediting the American occupation
of Iraq."
-
-
- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
|
