Pentagon admits 94 abuse cases

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Friday July 23, 2004

The Guardian

The Pentagon acknowledged yesterday that abuse of Iraqi and Afghan prisoners by their US army guards occurred on a far greater scale than previously disclosed, with at least 94 confirmed cases of death in custody, sexual and physical assault, and other mistreatment.

In a long-awaited report, the US army inspector general, Lieutenant General Paul Mikolashek, tripled the previous estimates of abuse at Abu Ghraib and other prisons. It was the first time the Pentagon had released a global figure for prisoner abuse, and the numbers could rise further, with an additional 31 cases of suspected abuse under review.

Yesterday's report also offered a steep upward revision for the number of prisoners America has taken in its war on terror, with 50,000 detainees passing through its detention centres in Iraq and Afghanistan since the autumn of 2001.

But while the numbers in the report represent a tripling of the incidence of abuse, Gen Mikolashek said there was no systemic problem in the treatment of detainees.

That conclusion - which cleaves to the Bush administration line that the shocking images of sexual humiliation at Abu Ghraib represent an isolated incident - was categorically rejected by human rights organisations yesterday.

"These sorts of abuses are widespread, and a systemic problem that needs to be addressed," said David Danzig of Human Rights First.

"What this report says is that we have got a widespread problem.

"We are not just talking about a few bad apples at Abu Ghraib. We are talking about a serious threat of recurring problems in Iraq and throughout Afghanistan."

Sixty-four of the 94 confirmed cases of abuse disclosed in the report took place near the battlefield. But the report also found 21 instances of mistreatment at US-run jails, including the notorious Abu Ghraib.

Gen Mikolashek supported the Bush administration's contention that mistreatment was restricted to the seven lowly reservists charged so far in the Abu Ghraib scandal.

"While we did find shortcomings and flaws in each of the systems we've looked at, we also found that in our analysis of those abusive situations that did occur, they were not the result of any widespread, systemic failure." the general said.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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