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35,000 held in Iraq, but few convicted

Richard Norton-Taylor

"Significant proportion of those who had been detained are joining militants after their release"

More than 35,000 Iraqis have been detained by American troops since the invasion of the country but only a tiny fraction have been convicted of wrongdoing.

About 21,000 have been released without ever being charged or tried. Of the 1,300 who have been charged, only half have been found guilty.

Some 13,500 Iraqis are still being detained, more than double last year's total, according to official American figures. The figures were obtained by the British Opposition Liberal Democrats from sources in U.S. Central Command, which oversees all American military operations in Iraq.

Most of the ``security detainees'' still being held are in ``theatre internment facilities'' including Abu Ghraib, the prison at the centre of the scandals of abuse by American troops. Others are being held in division or brigade internment centres.

The U.S. military says that ``security detainees'' are held under U.N. Security Council resolution 1546 and article 78 of the fourth Geneva convention covering the protection of civilians in times of war. This raises the question of whether the U.S. military is still fighting a war, and whether it believes it is.

The U.S. argues that the detenus do not have the right to legal advice. However, the only reference to detention under the U.N. resolution is an appended letter by Colin Powell, then U.S. Secretary of State, the Liberal Democrats say. The Powell letter says multinational forces in Iraq would impose ``internment where this is necessary for imperative reasons of security''.

A detenu can be charged only when their case has been investigated by an Iraqi judge. Only then does the detenu have access to legal advice.

Human Rights Watch, the New York-based campaigning and research organisation, early this year referred to ``the systematic use of arbitrary arrest, prolonged pre-trial detention without judicial review, and ill-treatment of detenus, denial of access by families and lawyers to detenus, improper treatment of detained children and abysmal conditions in detention facilities''.

— © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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