One year on, human rights still under attack says Amnesty

Serious human rights violations continue in Iraq one year after start of the US-led war, the non-governmental organization Amnesty International said in a recent report. "For the average Iraqi, life is still marked by fear of spiralling violence, lawlessness and arbitrary arrest," Curt Goering, senior deputy executive director of Amnesty International USA in Washington, said in a statement accompanying the report. The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) estimates that up to 8,500 detainees are in prisons around Iraq, while an Iraqi human rights group says the number could be as high as 15,000. According to Amnesty, many of the detainees have been held without charge for months and virtually none has had prompt access to a lawyer or family members, or to a judicial review. But prisoners arrested by US-led Coalition forces will soon be able to talk to lawyers advocating their rights, and many are being released, Audrey Glover, senior adviser to the newly created Ministry of Human Rights and Transitional Justice, told IRIN in Baghdad. One set of lawyers will work with alleged criminals, Glover said. Another will work with "security detainees" and community leaders willing to vouch for them, she said. Coalition officials have released some detainees in recent weeks on the basis of guarantees from community leaders that they will not be involved in future crimes. "Security detainees" are those involved in anti-coalition activities. Human rights groups have complained in the past that the "security" classification was created so that prisoners would not be subject to international standards set by the Geneva Conventions, which require basic human rights to be followed. In contrast, former President Saddam Hussein and other high-level officials wanted by US-led administrators are virtually all classified as prisoners of war, which are covered by the Geneva Conventions. "The minister said he would do anything to help the detainees," Glover said. "The lawyers will be liaisons between the guarantors for the detainees and the authorities to make sure they get handed over to the right guarantors." In addition, some "security detainees" who are not to be released will be able to have family visits soon, Glover said. US-led troops are providing mobile phones to prisoners to enable them to get in touch with leaders in their communities. But many families in Iraq remain without phone services after telecommunications facilities were bombed by US forces during the war. The ill-treatment of detainees was also highlighted by Amnesty in its report. It cites statements from many of those released claiming they have been beaten, deprived of sleep, restrained in painful positions, forced to listen to loud music, hooded and exposed to bright lights. Coalition forces in the past have said that prisoners are treated according to international standards. Amnesty also criticised what it called "excessive and unnecessary use of lethal force by Coalition forces" in its report, which is based on research over a 12-month period documenting attacks from armed groups and military forces. Scores of unarmed people have been killed by Coalition forces at public demonstrations, at checkpoints and in house raids, the report said. "The US, Iraqi political and religious leaders and the international community must urgently act to curtail violence and insist on universal respect of basic human rights," Amnesty's Goering said. The US military said it paid out US $1.5 million to Iraqi civilians to settle claims by victims or relatives of victims for injury, death or damage to property up to November 2003. Some of the 10,402 claims reportedly filed concerned incidents in which US soldiers shot and killed or seriously wounded Iraqi civilians with no apparent cause, the report said. Iraqi courts, because of an order issued by the US-led authority, are forbidden from hearing cases against US soldiers or any other foreign troops or foreign officials in Iraq, Amnesty noted. "A human rights culture will develop, but it's not going to happen overnight," said Glover.