Rights groups unable to visit child detainees

A boy talks through an open window covered by cage-like mesh to an older boy at the Karkh juvenile detention facility in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. When the older boy sees a reporter, he ducks and quickly walks away. The reporter is not allowed to talk to him, or to visit any part of the prison on two separate occasions, other than the warden's office next to the prison entrance across an open courtyard from where the two boys are talking. Access to child detainees is difficult and human rights groups are concerned about their welfare, particularly following the release of photos in late April showing US troops apparently forcing prisoners to simulate sex acts and abusing prisoners. Amnesty International (AI) complained that it had been "refused access" to enter Coalition detention centres, except for a brief visit to one in Mosul, in northern Iraq. A researcher at the international watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) also said workers did not have access to detained children. Clarisa Bencomo, the researcher, wondered if the children were being kept in poor or unsafe conditions. In addition, earlier this year the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) issued a statement raising concern over child detainees: "UNICEF is profoundly disturbed by news reports alleging that children may have been among those abused in detention centres and prisons in Iraq. Although the news reports have not been independently substantiated, they are alarming nonetheless," the statement said. The statement went on to say that "any mistreatment, sexual abuse, exploitation or torture of children in detention is a violation of international law - including the Convention on the Rights of the Child." From outside the cells, Karkh prison looks clean and recently painted. It has several mesh enclosures and razor wire ringing its five-metre high walls. Two US advisers from Science Applications Information Corp., or SAIC, talked to a reporter inside the detention facility but declined to give their names and referred all questions to the detention centre warden. More than 150 children ranging in age from nine to 18 are held there on any given day, both those convicted of crimes and those awaiting trial, Wali Jaleel Jabar, the warden at the detention centre, told IRIN. Families can visit the children once a week, Jabar said. Another 58 children are currently being held as "security detainees" at Abu Ghraib prison and at Camp Bucca, US Lt-Col Barry Johnson, a spokesman for the Office of the Deputy Commanding General for Detainee Operations, told IRIN. Johnson explained that one allegation of abuse of a juvenile was being investigated but declined to give specific details. Guards at Abu Ghraib often volunteer in their own time to play board games with the juveniles held there, he said. The cases of all juveniles would be reviewed this month to see if they should continue to be held. Reporters have rarely been allowed to go into Abu Ghraib prison to see the conditions and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were the only ones able to visit child detainees this year. "We were able to visit them between January and May this year so see what conditions they were in," spokesperson for ICRC, Nada Doumani told IRIN from the Jordanian capital, Amman. However, she would not elaborate on what conditions were like for child detainees due to confidentiality and security reasons, only adding that visits were resuming soon. "Special care is taken with juveniles to ensure their well-being is looked after," Johnson said. "However, these juveniles remain security detainees who have been deemed a threat to Coalition forces." HRW is most concerned about police abuse of children, including torture and forced labour in lock-ups, Bencomo said. A lack of facilities for girls is also a problem, Bencomo added. No girls are currently detained, either at Abu Ghraib or the Karkh facility. Under the former regime of Saddam Hussein, there was no punishment for guards or other detention workers accused of abusing children, said Jabar, adding that he managed a jail under the former regime. Now, children are not hit when they do something wrong, Jabar said. Instead, they are reprimanded verbally, he explained. The prison also has 20 social workers, doctors and medical assistants, and five teachers, Jabar said. Anyone accused of beating a child is investigated and can be fired, he added. "They're very well-treated with access to TV, air-conditioning and a library," Jabar said of the Karkh facility, which he manages. "When the children didn't like the dinner choices one week, we let them take a vote on what they wanted. We called it the dinner vote." Jabar pointed out, however, that some of the children were in jail for very serious crimes. Some 30 of them are in prison for killings, mostly of family members. Another 34 have committed armed robbery. All children in the prison have been sent there since the US-led invasion last April. All previous inmates in Iraq were let free by their jailers as US troops advanced into the country. No matter how well the children are treated, they can still exhibit dangerous behaviour in their late teens, however, Jabar said. Children aged between nine and 14 were recently separated from the 15 to 18-year-olds on the recommendation of US advisers, the detention centre warden said. "This is to avoid some sexual connections. I have two monitors in each room and we watch them day and night," Jabar said. "Fortunately we have had no bullying in the last year. There is teasing, but it is rare." At Abu Ghraib, juveniles are separated from the rest of the population so they are "not unduly harassed, influenced or abused by older detainees", Johnson said. Hundreds of detainees have been released in recent months from Abu Ghraib, following the prisoner abuse pictures. AI has complained about the detention and ill-treatment of some children, Alistair Hodgett, an AI spokesman, told IRIN. The human rights group did not however do systematic research because it has been refused access to the children, Hodgett said. In contrast, Salah Boushi, director of The Human Rights Foundation, a local aid agency, said his group had been allowed to look for two children believed to be held at Abu Ghraib who have been declared missing by their family. Ali and Hussein Sabah Merza were released after the group complained they had been detained because their father was a high official in the former regime, Boushi said. His claim could not be independently verified. Back at the Karkh prison, Jabar continued to talk about all of the great things he does to make sure the children are treated well, speaking of chess tournaments and lots of sports to keep the children from getting "too aggressive". "I'm sure you will write about us as if we're a hotel, not a prison," Jabar said. "It's so nice here," he added.