Abu Ghraib handover won’t improve prison conditions, say Iraqis

The US decision to hand over the Abu Ghraib prison to the Iraqi Ministry of Justice and transfer the so-called high security detainees to a new US-run facility is no guarantee that prisoners will not continue to be abused, according to NGOs and ordinary Iraqis. "Torture has been practiced by the US as well as by Iraqi military officials,” said Khalid Rabia'a, spokesman for the Baghdad-based Prisoners' Association for Justice (PAJ). “The handover of Abu Ghraib won’t stop the suffering and human rights abuses." Last week, the US military announced its intention to hand the notorious prison over to Iraqi authorities once detainees are transferred to nearby Camp Cropper, close to the Baghdad airport, and to other US military detention centres. About 4,500 of the 14,589 prisoners currently held on suspicion of insurgent activity are expected to be transferred to Camp Cropper as soon as construction work on the compound is completed, most probably in three months’ time. The rest, said to be ‘common criminals’, would remain under Iraqi control. "When we see that the Iraqi security groups have full capacity to take care of Iraqi prisons, we're going to leave,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Keir-Kevin Curry, spokesman for the US military in Iraq. “So far, they’ve shown to be improving very fast, and when the new compound is finished, we think that will be the right time to give them this chance." Rabia’a, however, expressed doubts that the move would result in improved conditions for inmates. "After US forces move out, Abu Ghraib will be left intact and turned over to the Iraqi government,” he said, “which will use the same methods to extract what they want from prisoners, especially by torture.” Numerous reports of prisoner abuse, including beatings with cables and the use of electric shocks, have emerged from the prison since the US-led invasion and occupation of the country in April 2003. Last month, both the Iraqi police and military were heavily criticised by Amnesty International and the US State Department for their use of torture and the regular abuse of prisoners. Officials at the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights, however, dispute this grim assessment. They maintain that the handover of Abu Ghraib to the government and the use of Iraqi, rather than foreign, jailers will lead to improved conditions for prisoners. "When an Iraqi speaks to another Iraqi, it’s easy for them to understand each other, and empathise with each other," said Hamam Ali, a senior ministry official. Iraqi defence ministry officials also defended the move on humanitarian grounds: "The handover by the US military was the right decision because, in this way, we can prevent injustice inside this horrible place,” said defence ministry adviser Muhammad al-Askari. Ordinary Iraqis, meanwhile, are not so sure. Many opine that, if anything, treatment doled out to inmates could be expected to worsen under the new management. "When Iraqis take over [the prison facility], they’re going to make it worse,” said Salaheddine Karama, a shopkeeper in the Mansour district of the capital, Baghdad. “They’ll see the prisoners as responsible for the killing of their relatives [in insurgent attacks] and unleash their anger on them." Salim Muhammad Kubaissy, a former victim of torture at the hands of the US military at Abu Ghraib, opined: "Only the United Nations, with the help of international human right groups, can prevent the torture of prisoners here."