- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S.
forces beat three Iraqis working for Reuters and subjected them to sexual
and religious taunts and humiliation during their detention last January
in a military camp near Falluja, the three said on Tuesday.
-
- The three first told Reuters of the ordeal after their
release but only decided to make it public when the U.S. military said
there was no evidence they had been abused, and following the exposure
of similar mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
-
- An Iraqi journalist working for U.S. network NBC, who
was arrested with the Reuters staff, also said he had been beaten and mistreated,
NBC said on Tuesday.
-
- Two of the three Reuters staff said they had been forced
to insert a finger into their anuses and then lick it, and were forced
to put shoes in their mouths, particularly humiliating in Arab culture.
-
- All three said they were forced to make demeaning gestures
as soldiers laughed, taunted them and took photographs. They said they
did not want to give details publicly earlier because of the degrading
nature of the abuse.
-
- The soldiers told them they would be taken to the U.S.
detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, deprived them of sleep, placed
bags over their heads, kicked and hit them and forced them to remain in
stress positions for long periods.
-
- The U.S. military, in a report issued before the Abu
Ghraib abuse became public, said there was no evidence the Reuters staff
had been tortured or abused.
-
- Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of ground
forces in Iraq, said in a letter received by Reuters on Monday but dated
March 5 that he was confident the investigation had been "thorough
and objective" and its findings were sound.
-
- Reuters Global Managing Editor David Schlesinger has
asked the Pentagon to review the military's findings about the incident
in light of the scandal over the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
-
- Pentagon chief spokesman Lawrence Di Rita told Reuters
on Tuesday: "The commander in Iraq reviewed the investigation in this
matter and was persuaded that it was thorough and appropriate. Should there
be new information provided sufficient to cause reconsideration of these
particular allegations, such information would be reviewed and acted upon
as appropriate."
-
- The abuse happened at Forward Operating Base Volturno,
near Falluja, the Reuters staff said. They were detained on January 2 while
covering the aftermath of the shooting down of a U.S. helicopter near Falluja
and held for three days, first at Volturno and then at Forward Operating
Base St Mere.
-
- The three -- Baghdad-based cameraman Salem Ureibi, Falluja-based
freelance television journalist Ahmad Mohammad Hussein al-Badrani and driver
Sattar Jabar al-Badrani -- were released without charge on January 5.
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- "INADEQUATE" INVESTIGATION
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- "When I saw the Abu Ghraib photographs, I wept,"
Ureibi said on Tuesday. "I saw they had suffered like we had."
-
- Ureibi, who understands English better than the other
two detainees, said soldiers told him they wanted to have sex with him,
and he was afraid he would be raped.
-
- NBC, whose stringer Ali Muhammed Hussein Ali al-Badrani
was detained along with the Reuters staff, said he reported that a hood
was placed over his head for hours, and that he was forced to perform physically
debilitating exercises, prevented from sleeping and struck and kicked several
times.
-
- "Despite repeated requests, we have yet to receive
the results of the army investigation," NBC News Vice President Bill
Wheatley said.
-
- Schlesinger sent a letter to Sanchez on January 9 demanding
an investigation into the treatment of the three Iraqis.
-
- The U.S. army said it was investigating and requested
further information. Reuters provided transcripts of initial interviews
with the three following their release, and offered to make them available
for interview by investigators.
-
- A summary of the investigation by the 82nd Airborne Division,
dated January 28 and provided to Reuters, said "no specific incidents
of abuse were found." It said soldiers responsible for the detainees
were interviewed under oath and "none admit or report knowledge of
physical abuse or torture."
-
- "The detainees were purposefully and carefully put
under stress, to include sleep deprivation, in order to facilitate interrogation;
they were not tortured," it said. The version received on Monday used
the phrase "sleep management" instead.
-
- The U.S. military never interviewed the three for its
investigation.
-
- On February 3 Schlesinger wrote to Di Rita, saying the
investigation was "woefully inadequate" and should be reopened.
-
- "The military's conclusion of its investigation
without even interviewing the alleged victims, along with other inaccuracies
and inconsistencies in the report, speaks volumes about the seriousness
with which the U.S. government is taking this issue," he wrote.
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- ABUSE SCANDAL
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- The U.S. military faced international outrage this month
after photographs surfaced showing U.S. soldiers humiliating and abusing
Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib.
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- An investigation by Major General Antonio Taguba found
that "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal
abuses were inflicted on several detainees" in the prison.
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- Seven U.S. soldiers have been charged over the Abu Ghraib
abuse and the first court martial is set for Wednesday.
-
- U.S. officials say the abuse was carried out by a small
number of soldiers and that all allegations of abuse are promptly and thoroughly
investigated.
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