UN demands actions against prisoner abuse soldiers
The top UN human rights official today urged the American and British military to bring to justice soldiers alleged to have abused prisoners in Iraq.
Bertrand Ramcharan, the acting UN high commissioner for human rights, has also begun an investigation of the overall situation in the Iraq, said his spokesman Jose Diaz.
Ramcharan “adds his voice to the expressions of revulsion regarding the reports and the photographs depicting the abuse of Iraqi prisoners,” Diaz said.
“Such incidents should be investigated and those responsible brought to justice swiftly. The acting high commissioner notes that coalition authorities have indicated that they will do just that and he looks forward to seeing the conclusions of those investigations.”
There has been a chorus of international criticism of purported abuse of prisoners, after US network CBS last week broadcast images showing Iraqis stripped naked, hooded and being tormented by their US captors.
The UN special investigator on torture, Theo van Boven, said those responsible must be punished, he said.
A British newspaper also published photos purporting to show a hooded Iraqi being pushed, threatened and urinated on by a soldier from the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment.
Last month, Ramcharan told the UN Human Rights Commission – the global body’s top watchdog – that he wanted more scrutiny of the situation in Iraq.
Diaz said UN experts have started gathering information for a report on the human rights in Iraq, even though they currently are unable to travel there.
The UN team, which expects to release its findings at the end of the month, is collecting information from media reports, as well as the coalition, Iraq’s human rights ministry, foreign aid groups and Iraqi UN employees, Diaz said.
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