Friday, May 16, 2003

Did US and UK soldiers go too far and actually torture Iraqi prisoners during the War?

Iraqi civilians and soldiers have accused British and U.S. troops of torturing them for information during the war in Iraq, human rights lobby group Amnesty International said on Friday. Amnesty researcher Said Boumedouha said the group had so far interviewed about 20 people who said they were tortured -- mostly by beatings but at least one by electric shock -- after being detained as prisoners of war. Some civilians were held as suspected Iraqi militia fighters. Boumedouha said Amnesty was still collecting witness statements and had not corroborated the statements, nor raised the matter with British or U.S. authorities on any level.

"They are a mixture of civilians and soldiers... The torture some people have mentioned is mostly beatings," Boumedouha said at a news briefing in London about the Amnesty mission in Iraq. "We interviewed one person who was beaten up for a whole night, who was bleeding but they wouldn't even give him water."


This would be terrible if true.....
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