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Sunnis demand probe of torture allegations
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-16 21:51
Iraq's main Sunni Arab political party on Wednesday
demanded an international investigation into allegations that security forces
illegally detained and tortured suspected insurgents at secret jails in Baghdad.
An Iraqi policemen
shows bruises, allegedly caused by torturers, as he and his colleagues are
treated at a local hospital in Baghdad, Monday, Nov. 14, 2005. According
to the victims they were arrested by Interior Minister special forces on
Thursday, while they were in plain clothes, patrolling Baghdad's Saydya
district. They were released Monday after being detained in an Interior
Ministry detention center seized by U.S. forces. [AP]
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Omar Heikal of the Iraqi Islamic Party said it was now clear that majority
Shiites in the U.S.-backed government were trying to suppress minority Sunnis
ahead of the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.
"Our information indicates that this is not the only place where torture is
taking place," he said, reading an official party statement. The party "calls on
the United Nations, the Arab League and humanitarian bodies to denounce these
clear human rights violations, and we demand a fair, international probe so that
all those who are involved in such practices will get their just punishment."
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari confirmed Tuesday that more than 173
Interior Ministry prisoners were found malnourished and possibly tortured by
government security forces at a Baghdad lockup.
Al-Jaafari's comments came a day after an Interior Ministry official said an
investigation will be opened into allegations that its officers tortured
suspects detained in connection with the insurgency.
"I was informed that there were 173 detainees held at an Interior Ministry
prison and they appear to be malnourished. There is also some talk that they
were subjected to some kind of torture," al-Jaafari told reporters.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said U.S. and Iraqi forces went into the
facility in Baghdad suspecting that individuals there might not have been
appropriately handled or managed, and "they found things that concerned them."
Tariq al-Hashimi, the secretary-general of the Iraqi Islamic Party, held up
photos of the bodies of people who appear to have been subjected to torture and
said: "This is what your Sunni brothers are being subjected too."
He said his group had sent complaints in the past the government, but without
response.
"We told them that if you don't have information, then where are our brothers
who were kidnapped by people wearing your uniforms, using your telecommunication
equipment and driving your cars," he said.
He said that if the investigation proves that the interior minister was
involved, then he should resign. He also said the country's top Shiite cleric,
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, should "condemn these acts and stop covering"
for the Shiite minister.
Saad Farhan, a 40 year-old trader in Ramadi, said his brother and cousin were
detained by Interior Ministry forces and that some detainees were taken to
building raided by U.S. forces.
"Some government officials want to keep the Sunnis away
from the next elections by terrorizing us," he said. "We believe that Iran's
agents are behind it because normal and genuine Iraqis never do this."
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