The Guardian
March 2, 2005
By Julian Borger in Washington

The US state department has criticised the Iraqi government for serious human rights abuses including extra-judicial killings, torture, rape and illegal detentions, with some of the worst violations committed in Basra.

The section on the western-backed Baghdad government in the state department's annual global human rights assessment this week noted that Iraq "generally respected human rights" and the present situation could not be compared with the pre-war dictatorship of Saddam Hussein or the atrocities committed by the insurgents. But the report noted that "serious problems remained".

The state department looked into reports of "arbitrary deprivation of life" focusing on Basra, the city in southern Iraq garrisoned by British troops.

It cited police reports alleging that officers from an Iraqi intelligence internal affairs unit killed 10 Ba'ath party members and a mother and daughter accused of prostitution.

"The Basra chief of intelligence was removed from his position as a result of the accusations; however, he retained command of the internal affairs unit," the state department said.

"Other instances reflected arbitrary actions by government agents. For example, on October 16, Baghdad police arrested, interrogated and killed 12 kidnappers of three police officers."

The report confirmed earlier findings by the independent group Human Rights Watch that "torture and ill treatment of detainees by police was commonplace". It also mentioned abuses by the Iraqi national guard, including the looting and razing of houses in Falluja and southern Baghdad, and the beating of a doctor in Baghdad for refusing to treat a wounded guardsman ahead of more seriously injured civilians.

The state department also reported a backlog of hundreds of cases in the Iraqi prison system, accusing guards of "abuse and torture of detainees and prisoners, including women".

Only 10 cases had been investigated by the end of last year.

The report did not address allegations against US servicemen, which have been subject to other inquiries.

However, the report was the most scathing official US assessment to date of the caretaker Iraqi government installed by Washington last summer.

The report was also critical of the human rights records of US allies in the "war on terror" including Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

The state department's secretary for democracy, human rights and labour, Michael Kozak, was asked about reports that the CIA had flown terrorism suspects to those countries knowing they were likely to be tortured.

Mr Kozak said he could not talk about specific cases but noted that the US was obliged by the international convention against torture not to turn over suspects to countries where they could be tortured, "and we take that seriously".

Another highly critical human rights report was published yesterday focusing on the link between international peacekeeping and the trafficking in women in the Balkans.

The report, Barracks and Brothels by Sarah Mendelson, found that although the US defence department, Nato and the UN had officially adopted zero-tolerance policies to their peacekeepers' involvement in prostitution rings, those policies were not being seriously enforced because of "indifference, denial, misperception and even acceptance".

Ms Mendelson found that human trafficking rings had gone underground in the wake of a series of scandals in the late 90s, but they were still just as entrenched because the issue was generally not taken seriously by senior officers in the peacekeeping missions.

"There are people mistaking women and girls as wilful participants," she said.

"You have people assuming it's legal. I even had people talking to me about soldiers' rights, saying it was good for the mission," she added.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005

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