Denmark pressed to seek probe into reports of Iraqi child torture

[allemand]

The Danish-based International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) has urged the Copenhagen Government to demand an investigation by the US-led coalition forces in Iraq into allegations that children there were being imprisoned and tortured.

The demand comes three days after a similar appeal to the Danish Government, which is part of the US-led military coalition in oil-rich Iraq, from the Danish section of the international aid agency Save the Children.

That appeal received no response.

"The Danish Government has to speak out now that these rumours have been confirmed by a recent documentary on Germany's ARD television on the degrading treatment meted out to children imprisoned in Iraq, in violation of international conventions," IRCT spokesman Tue Magnussen told AFP.

<...>

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200407/s1150938.htm

[shraby]

1. I sent this to my

senator, Russ Feingold.

[alarcojon]

10. Russ kicks ass!

I'll send it to him too, fellow Wisconsinite. B-)

[lazarus]

2. something is rotten

but it ain't in Denmark this time. Good for them.

And shame on the American government and media for not pursuing this.

[acmavm]

3. I guess the bush* administration thinks that everything is kosher now

since they've added five or so more charges against Lyndee England.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Sworn Statements..... Washington Post

The Danish-based International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) has urged the Copenhagen Government to demand an investigation by the US-led coalition forces in Iraq into allegations that children there were being imprisoned and tortured.<<


Throw this in there and you have quite a mess indeed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/iraq/abughraib/swornstatements042104.html?g
These documents, obtained by The Washington Post, are the offical English translations of previously secret sworn statements by detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Some of the names have been withheld from these statements by washingtonpost.com because they are alleged victims of sexual assault. These files are in PDF format.

Some of the descriptions in these statements may be disturbing because of their sexually explicit or graphic nature.

[Whoa_Nelly]

6. My anger overrides the sick feeling

I get when reading about the chidren being tortured and/or raped. Every report I read I send out to more places and people. Fuck you, George Bush and your X-tain ideology!

[0007]

5. Hooray for the Danish Government!

""Denmark, as a pioneer in the fight against torture, has a particular obligation to say loud and clear that mistreatment, especially of minors, is unacceptable and to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice, even if they are faithful allies," he Magnussen said.

The question now is will the American media step up to the plate?

[Whoa_Nelly]

7. Email the media--here's a list

thanks to ColdnGrey :)

[e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail],

[e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]@interl.net, [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], berlinreporter@salmonpresscom, [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]


[e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]


[e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]

[e-mail],[e-mail],[e-mail],[e-mail], [e-mail],[e-mail],[e-mail] [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail],[e-mail],[e-mail], [e-mail],[e-mail],[e-mail],[e-mail], [e-mail],[e-mail], [e-mail],[e-mail], [e-mail],
[e-mail],MSNBC_Hardball_NewsMail@MSNBC....
[e-mail],[e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]
[e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]
[e-mail], [e-mail],[e-mail],[e-mail] [e-mail],
[e-mail], [e-mail],[e-mail],[e-mail],
[e-mail],[e-mail],[e-mail],[e-mail],
[e-mail],[e-mail], [e-mail],[e-mail], [e-mail],[e-mail],[e-mail], [e-mail],[e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail],[e-mail], [e-mail]

[Whoa_Nelly]

8. Until the US media takes up this story

and until there is global outrage, am kicking this story.
Keep those emails flying to all news media outlets!
:kick:

[veggiemama]

9. Somebody needs to!

It's barely a blip even the internet's radar. I found some information, and I apologize if it's already been posted here, but I feel this story must get out somehow. All my links are here:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/thread?forumid=259017&messageid=1089311377

[allemand]

11. Maybe the problem is

that the abuse information is not new.

Already in May Suhaib al-Baz, a cameraman for al-Jazeera, told ITV News about the abuse of the 12-year-old girl and the 15-year-old boy.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/08/1083911442998.html?from=storyrhs

Also in May Sgt. Samuel Provance told ABC News, the Chicago Tribune and others about the abuse of the 16-year-old boy and of "a female Iraqi prisoner".

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/Investigation/abu_ghraib_cover_up_040521-1.html

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/world/8707235.htm

The article contains this additional information:

"Provance said he escorted the boy from the interrogation cell block to the prison's general population immediately after the encounter between the teenager and his father.

"This kid was so frail. He was shaking like a leaf," Provance said. "He said he was glad we had come there (to topple Saddam Hussein's government) but he didn't understand all these raids, all that we were doing to him."

Provance added that he urged the interrogators not to put the teenager in among the prison's unruly, poorly supervised general population, which included many hardened criminals. But Provance said he was rebuffed.

"I even went inside and said `This kid is scared for his life. He's probably going to be raped. He can't be put in general population,' " Provance said."


The new information contained in the German report/press release is that the "female Iraqi prisoner" in fact was a girl of 15 to 16 years.

Also new is the internal report by UNICEF, that children are being held in "indetermined custody without contact to the family, the prospect of a process or trial” and the statement of the spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Florian Westphal, that between January and May the ICRC registered 107 children in prison compounds controlled by the coalition forces.

An official report by UNICEF would certainly be very helpful to encourage the media to take the story up, but it doesn't look like this is going to happen. The ICRC normally prefers other channels than the media. It is already a huge step to have that statement on tape. Probably it shows how desperate the situation really is.

There are also other articles about children in Abu Ghraib, e.g. this Guardian article, dated April 23, 2004:

http://www.redefeatbush.com/modules.php?name=News&file=comments&sid=127&tid=52&mode=&order=&thold=


"Hassan says he was locked in a high-security isolation unit of tiny cells. Down the tier from him was an old woman who sobbed incessantly and a mentally deranged 13-year-old girl who would scream and shriek until the American guards released her into the hall, where she would run up and down".


What does a "mentally deranged 13-year-old girl" do in the maximum security wing of a prison?? What danger does she pose to the coalition forces?
Maybe she was not "mentally deranged" all the time? Maybe she is the same 12 to 13 year old girl that was being stripped naked, beaten and paraded in front of other prisoners?


In a Times article, dated July 9, 2003, one can see how this whole nightmare began:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0709-06.htm

"Families Live in Fear of Midnight Call by US Patrols"

But in recent weeks there have been increasing reports of Iraqi men, women and even children being dragged from their homes at night by American patrols, or snatched off the streets and taken, hooded and manacled, to prison camps around the capital.
Children as young as 11 are claimed to be among those locked up for 24 hours a day in rooms with no light, or held in overcrowded tents in temperatures approaching 50C (122F).

<...>

Amnesty claims that 80 minors have been detained, accused of petty offences including writing anti-American graffiti or, in the case of two teenage boys, climbing on the back of a US troop carrier to hitch a lift through a main street in Baghdad.

One of the most disturbing incidents concerns Sufiyan Abd al-Ghani, 11, who was with his uncle in a car that was stopped near his home in Hay al-Jihad at just after 10pm on May 27. The boy’s father heard a commotion and rushed outside to see him sprawled face down on the road with a rifle muzzle pressed against his neck and US officers shouting that someone in the car had shot at them.

Sufiyan was made to stay on the ground for three hours, while more than 100 soldiers poured into the neighborhood, searching houses and cars. Eventually he was taken away with his hands trussed behind his back and a hood draped over his head. No weapon had been found. The boy said that soldiers dug rifle butts into his neck and back and that the first night he was handcuffed and left alone in a tiny room open to the sky.
The following day he was moved to the airport, where he said for eight days he shared a tent with 22 adults, sleeping on the dirt, with no water to wash or change his clothes.

Sufiyan said that he was pulled from the tent one morning, hooded and manacled again, and driven to Sarhiyeh prison, to be kept in a room with 20 other youths aged 15 or 16 — regarded as minors by the Geneva Convention."

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

12. Will the child rape videos now get accidentally destroyed by the Pentagon?

in the same way that Bush's military records met their fate?