- COPENHAGEN (AFP) -- Several
Danish soldiers stationed in Iraq are being investigated for suspected
abuse and possibly torture of prisoners, a Danish military spokesman said
on Tuesday.
-
- "Several (Danish) soldiers are suspected of mistreating,
at a moderate level, prisoners in Iraq, and are the object of an investigation,"
Lieutenant-Colonel Hans-Christian Mathisen told AFP.
-
- His comments come a day after Danish daily Ekstra Bladet
revealed that the armed forces had launched a probe into whether one of
its army intelligence officers had tortured prisoners in Iraq.
-
- The paper on Tuesday followed up that report by revealing
that the intelligence officer under investigation was a woman, Annemette
Hommel, and considered as "one of the most experienced officers ...
in interrogation techniques".
-
- Mathisen refused to confirm the identity of the intelligence
officer, but did reveal that "this is not a case of just one person,
one army intelligence officer, as the media reported on Monday. Several
others could be involved in this case."
-
- He added that army inspectors had interrogated "the
incriminated people and those who had denounced them" in Kuwait, and
said he would hand in his report in about a month.
-
- "The torture suspicions relate to the refusal to
give prisoners water and leaving them for several hours at a time in uncomfortable
and painful positions," Mathisen said.
-
- "Even if this type of abuse is moderate, it is completely
unacceptable. We can't violate human rights, and a single violation is
one violation too many," he said.
-
- Denmark has 500 soldiers based in the southern Basra
region under British command, and all prisoners captured by Danish troops
are subsequently handed over to Iraqi police or to British forces.
-
- Those suspected of having committed the abuses "were
denounced by their colleagues, which is positive and which shows that there
is a high degree of self-imposed justice among the Danish soldiers, who
refuse to participate in any form of torture and who (aren't afraid to)
say it," Mathisen said.
-
- Danish Defense Minister Soeren Gade meanwhile told Extra
Bladet that the torture suspicions also included a gunfire incident, but
refused to elaborate.
-
- Sharply critical in the past of the Iraq torture scandal
involving US and British troops, Gade assured reporters that he was taking
allegations against Danish soldiers very seriously, adding that anyone
found guilty of such charges would be punished.
-
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-
- http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=23652
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