Iraqi security forces stand accused by a leading international human rights organisation of committing systematic torture against detainees, raising alarm over the conduct of Iraq's post-war interim government less than a week before the country's first democratic elections.
In a report issued on Tuesday, the New York-based Human Rights Watch calls on the Iraqi government to investigate widespread abuses and urges the US to increase the number of advisers at detention centres run by the Iraqi ministry of the interior.
“The Iraqi interim government, led by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and presented to the international community as a sign that the violence and abuses of the Saddam Hussein government are a thing of the past, appears to be actively taking part, or is at least complicit, in these grave violations of fundamental human rights,” says the report.
“Nor has the United States, the UK, or other involved governments publicly taken up these issues as a matter of concern.” Sabah Kathim, spokesman for the interior minister in Baghdad, on Monday said he had never come across “complaints of this nature to the police” or even a single case of torture. He said allegations would be investigated, but that he was sceptical of a report issued days before the election.
blah, blah...and so on.
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