Nine bricklayers who were picked up by Iraqi security police as being suspected insurgents were left in a locked metal container in scorching heat for fourteen hours have died. Three others somehow survived the ordeal. A doctor told the BBC that one of the survivors had said he had been given repeated electric shocks by the commandos.
The twelve men were arrested yesterday after they had taken another worker to a hospital in Ameriya with gunshot wounds. Iraqi commandos, reports Aljazeera, arrived, beat the men and placed them under arrest. Around noon the men were put into the metal container where they remained well into the night.
The survivors were kept under police guard as they were treated and were taken away without being allowed to speak to journalists.
There have been numerous allegations of brutality in the new democracy, particularly by police and commandos, against detained suspects. The Christian Science Monitor has reported accusations against the police and commandos ranging from reports of prisoner torture and death of detainees to the arbitrary arrest and abuse at the hands of inexperienced and untrained police officers.
Human Rights Watch agrees and in a report last January said torture and abuse by Iraqi authorities had become "routine and commonplace." That report detailed methods of interrogation in which prisoners were beaten with cables and pipes, shocked, or suspended from their wrists for prolonged periods of time.
But wait! According to Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield and Attorney General Gonzales that ain’t brutality. After all, they were probably allowed copies of the Koran. Sources: BBC, Aljazeera, AKI (Italy), Christian Science Monitor
No comments:
Post a Comment