GENEVA - The Red Cross discovered "serious violations" of the rights of Iraqi prisoners, with abuse so widespread it may be considered to have been tolerated by the U.S.-led coalition, the Wall Street Journal said on Friday.
In a confidential 24-page document, which was seen by the
financial newspaper, the International Committee of the Red
Cross said treatment in some cases was "tantamount to torture,"
particularly when interrogators were seeking information or
confessions.
An official at the Geneva-based ICRC said the document,
covering the period March-November 2003, was genuine, adding
that the leak was a "major breakdown in confidentiality."
In a rare break with its normal practice, the ICRC said
that it would release the full text at a 1400 GMT news
conference.
The use of ill-treatment "went beyond exceptional cases and
might be considered a practice tolerated" by coalition forces,
the newspaper quoted the ICRC as saying.
That differs sharply from the view of senior officials in
the administration of President Bush that military higher-ups
had not condoned abuse, the newspaper said.
In the report, the ICRC said prisoners at Baghdad's Abu
Ghraib prison were held in empty cells naked and beaten by
soldiers. Three former military policemen at the prison told
Reuters on Thursday that abuse was commonplace.
The aid group also said coalition forces fired on unarmed
prisoners from watchtowers and killed some of them, as well as
committing "serious violations" of the Geneva Conventions
governing treatment of war prisoners, the Journal said.
The newspaper report comes a day after the Red Cross said
on Thursday it had repeatedly urged the United States to take
"corrective action" at a Baghdad jail at the center of a
scandal over abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
The Geneva-based humanitarian agency, mandated under
international treaties to visit detainees, has had regular
access to Abu Ghraib prison since U.S.-led forces began using
it last year, a Red Cross spokeswoman said.
Pictures of grinning U.S. soldiers abusing naked Iraqis at
Abu Ghraib -- the largest prison in the country and notorious
for torture under Iraqi President Saddam Hussein -- have
sparked an international outcry.
Copyright © 2004 Reuters Limited.
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