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Friday, May 14, 2004

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International

I wished for death, says prisoner

By Rory McCarthy

BAGHDAD, MAY 13. An Iraqi prisoner, who was held for four months at the notorious U.S.-run Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad described yesterday how he spent 18 days naked alone in a cell, often with his hands and feet bound together, and was frequently beaten, urinated on and occasionally photographed hooded and naked by American troops.

Saddam Salah al-Rawi (29), said inmates were ordered not to reveal the abuse to Red Cross officials. For two hours yesterday, Mr al-Rawi, prisoner number 200144, gave a graphic and harrowing account of his time in jail. Although he speaks no English, he named some of the soldiers already identified in the investigation into prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib.

His account suggests abuse at the prison was widespread and systematic and involved more than the actions of a handful of junior soldiers. His testimony is one of around a dozen being studied by the Iraqi Human Rights Organisation, which eventually hopes to bring cases against the U.S. military.

``I feel I lost my dignity,'' Mr al-Rawi said. ``I couldn't even raise my head in my house when I went home.''

Mr al-Rawi, a former trainer in Saddam Hussein's feared special security organisation, was arrested in Baghdad on November 29 last year. He claims he was detained by Iraqi police after he went to warn them about a car he saw in central Baghdad that he believed was packed with explosives.

He was moved to a building in the Palestine Street district of Baghdad where he was beaten and then transferred to a U.S. military base where he was again beaten. Four days later he was taken in an armoured personnel carrier to Abu Ghraib. According to his ``release form for detained civilians'', Mr al-Rawi was held at the prison from December 1 until he was freed on March 28 this year. ``Whatever crime they have committed has been reviewed and any time required has been served,'' the document says. It is signed by the camp commandant, Lieutenant Colonel Craig Essick, but does not specify the charges against Mr al-Rawi.

``When I got to the cells the first American who came to me was called Sergeant Joiner,'' he said. Other prisoners have also spoken of a soldier named Joiner and they appear to be referring to Specialist Charles Graner, one of the soldiers who appears in the photographs and faces charges over the abuse scandal.

``He locked his arm under mine and holding the back of my head he beat my head against the doors of the cells,'' Mr al-Rawi said. He was then hooded and pushed into a cell which contained three or four other prisoners. He asked one, who he named as Thamir Issawi, to turn around and to lift up his hood with his bound hands to allow him to breathe more easily. ``When he opened my hood I could see his back. He was naked. All of them around me were naked,'' he said.

He was kept in his cell, frequently with his hands and feet bound. He described one position he was forced to maintain in which his hands and feet were pushed through the metal bars of the cell door and then tied together.

``There was a stereo inside the cell and it played music with a sound so loud I couldn't sleep,'' he said. ``I stayed like that for 23 hours.''

Another position he was forced to adopt was known as the ``scorpion'' position and was initiated by a civilian American with a goatee beard who he identified as ``Steven''. One of the civilians singled out for criticism in the Taguba report [into abuse at Abu Ghraib, drawn up by Major General Antonio Taguba] is Steven Stephanowicz, a contractor working as an interrogator in the jail.

``They tied my hands to my feet behind my back. My left hand to my right foot and my right hand to my left foot. I was lying face down and they were beating me like this,'' he said.

He identified another soldier in the jail as ``Schneider,'' which appeared to refer to Sergeant Shannon Snider, of the 372nd MP Company, who was also criticised in the Taguba report.

At times, he said, the soldiers took photographs of him and other prisoners. ``They came to us and showed us the pictures they had taken of us and they were teasing us,'' he said.

``In my cell I was shouting: `Please come and take me. Please kill me. I am Osama bin Laden, I was in the plane that hit the World Trade Centre.' I wished for death at that time,'' he said. ``I wanted to be dead 1,000 times. I asked my God to take my soul.''

At the end of March, Mr al-Rawi was released. He was given clothes belonging to another prisoner and $10 to catch a taxi home. There was also a warning: ``One of the soldiers told me: `You were inside the prison and you saw some good things and some bad things. Forget the bad things and remember only the good.'''

When he returned home he called off his planned marriage and now wants to testify at the courts martial that will be held against the soldiers involved. ``I broke off the relationship with my fiancee because I felt I couldn't get my dignity back,'' he said. ``Just think of all those prisoners in the jail. If Bush says sorry for them, will it bring back their dignity?'' —

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