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Reports From Iraq > Wed., May 5, 2004
More Abuses from the Gates of Abu Ghraib
Zahara Ibd Ali's son has been in American custody for
months. The US military won't tell her if he's alive or
dead. |
by Aaron Glantz
ABU GHRAIB, IRAQ – President George W. Bush continued
his efforts to contain outrage over the torture scandal at
Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison – formerly Saddam
Hussein’s most notorious lock-up. Speaking to the Pentagon-run
Arab satellite station al-Hurra (the freedom), Bush said reiterated
he was “appalled” at broadcast images of Iraq’s
naked and hooded. He pledged a full investigation and accountability
for what he insisted were the actions of a few.
But at the gates of Abu Ghraib, few were receptive to Bush’s
message. Hundreds of families of victims rallied outside the
barbed wire that circles the prison this morning. Among them
a middle aged man named Tarik from Samara. His brother is
in prison along with his 73 year old father.
“This wire is democratic,” he jokes pointing
at the razor-wire. “And this wire is where the freedom
came in.”
Tarik says his father, an senior Sheik from the ancient city
of Samara, suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes,
but has received no insulin since he was arrested 8 months
ago. He says he hasn't been able to see his brother, so he
has no idea if he's become a victim of American torture.
Hours later, scores of families still cue outside the prison
gates hoping for a chance to see their loved ones –
the same practice as under Saddam’s regime.
Only a few of families waiting outside Abu Ghraib have been
granted a visit. And many of those with loved ones in American
custody have not even been told where their family members
are being held. Zahara Ibd Ali's 26 year old son was arrested
by the US military a year ago in a raid that also destroyed
her house. She's heard rumors that American troops killed
him, but she hasn't yet given up hope.
“I’ve been to every prison in Iraq,” she
tells IPS rattling off a list of American detention centers
from Tikrit in the North to Basra in the South. “Whenever
anyone tells me a place I go there.”
She says she has sold almost everything she owns in her search
for her son. “I am even ready to sell my pots because
I don’t have any money to go anywhere anymore.
‘It’s not a problem if they just give me the
dead body of my son,” she insists. “If he’s
alive they have to let me see hi8m and if he’s dead
they have to bring me his body.”
Another of those waiting outside the prison gates is Abdul
Rachman Abdul Razak Hassen, a former Iraqi Army General who
was purged from the military when Saddam Hussein became Iraq's
President in 1979. He hasn't been able to see his three sons
-- who are all behind bars at Abu Ghraib. He's also angry
about the way they were arrested. First, he says the American
Army destroyed his house.
“If you want to ask something you just have to knock
on the door,” he says. “They bombed the door.
They destroyed all the furniture and they took every paper
in the home, the Ids, the money, the gold, the diamonds. They
didn’t leave anything.”
After that, Abdul Rachman, says the American military turned
its attention to his farm -- attacking it with hum-vees, tanks,
and bulldozers.
“They destroyed my whole farm and even the farm house
there,” he explains. “It’s all worth about
a million dollars.”
He says the US military even laid waste to his chickens –
numbering 19,000, valued at more than $250,000. “They’re
all gone now,” he says of his chickens. “The Americans
killed them.”
At the gates of Abu Ghraib, there's little indication US
tactics are doing anything to stifle armed resistance to the
occupation -- the offense for which prisoners here are accused.
“We know their people and we know what they are thinking,”
says Abu Tayiff. His sister's son has been behind bars here
for three months. No one has been allowed a visit “We
know they best way to deal with them is through the resistance.”
There are some signs of progress in solving the problem of
abuses at Abu Ghraib. Today, the US military released 312
inmates from the facility while the prison's new warden --
former Guantanamo prison Chief, Major General Jeffery Miller
pledged to cut the number of inmates by half. But even that
promise raises more questions than answers for most Iraqi
families. The Department of Defense claims there are only
4,000 inmates at Abu Ghraib. But Iraq's Bush-Administration
appointed Ministry of Human Rights has told IPS the prison
currently holds 15,000 inmates. This week, the Minister resigned
to protest America's killing of more than 600 civilians in
Fallujah and torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib
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