[News] Iraq's Child Prisoners

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Glasgow Sunday Herald - 01 August 2004

Iraq's Child Prisoners
A Sunday Herald investigation has discovered that coalition forces are 
holding more than 100 children in jails such as Abu Ghraib. Witnesses claim 
that the detainees - some as young as 10 - are also being subjected to rape 
and torture
By Neil Mackay

It was early last October that Kasim Mehaddi Hilas says he witnessed the 
rape of a boy prisoner aged about 15 in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in 
Iraq. "The kid was hurting very bad and they covered all the doors with 
sheets," he said in a statement given to investigators probing prisoner 
abuse in Abu Ghraib. "Then, when I heard the screaming I climbed the door Š 
and I saw [the soldier's name is deleted] who was wearing a military 
uniform." Hilas, who was himself threatened with being sexually assaulted 
in Abu Graib, then describes in horrific detail how the soldier raped "the 
little kid".

In another witness statement, passed to the Sunday Herald, former prisoner 
Thaar Salman Dawod said: "[I saw] two boys naked and they were cuffed 
together face to face and [a US soldier] was beating them and a group of 
guards were watching and taking pictures and there was three female 
soldiers laughing at the prisoners. The prisoners, two of them, were young."

It's not certain exactly how many children are being held by coalition 
forces in Iraq, but a Sunday Herald investigation suggests there are up to 
107. Their names are not known, nor is where they are being kept, how long 
they will be held or what has happened to them during their detention.

Proof of the widespread arrest and detention of children in Iraq by US and 
UK forces is contained in an internal Unicef report written in June. The 
report has - surprisingly - not been made public. A key section on child 
protection, headed "Children in Conflict with the Law or with Coalition 
Forces", reads: "In July and August 2003, several meetings were conducted 
with CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) Š and Ministry of Justice to 
address issues related to juvenile justice and the situation of children 
detained by the coalition forces Š Unicef is working through a variety of 
channels to try and learn more about conditions for children who are 
imprisoned or detained, and to ensure that their rights are respected."

Another section reads: "Information on the number, age, gender and 
conditions of incarceration is limited. In Basra and Karbala children 
arrested for alleged activities targeting the occupying forces are reported 
to be routinely transferred to an internee facility in Um Qasr. The 
categorisation of these children as 'internees' is worrying since it 
implies indefinite holding without contact with family, expectation of 
trial or due process."

The report also states: "A detention centre for children was established in 
Baghdad, where according to ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) 
a significant number of children were detained. Unicef was informed that 
the coalition forces were planning to transfer all children in adult 
facilities to this 'specialised' child detention centre. In July 2003, 
Unicef requested a visit to the centre but access was denied. Poor security 
in the area of the detention centre has prevented visits by independent 
observers like the ICRC since last December.

"The perceived unjust detention of Iraqi males, including youths, for 
suspected activities against the occupying forces has become one of the 
leading causes for the mounting frustration among Iraqi youths and the 
potential for radicalisation of this population group."

Journalists in Germany have also been investigating the detention and abuse 
of children in Iraq. One reporter, Thomas Reutter of the TV programme 
Report Mainz, interviewed a US army sergeant called Samuel Provance, who is 
banned from speaking about his six months stationed in Abu Ghraib but told 
Reutter of how one 16-year-old Iraqi boy was arrested.

"He was terribly afraid," Provance said. "He had the skinniest arms I've 
ever seen. He was trembling all over. His wrists were so thin we couldn't 
even put handcuffs on him. Right when I saw him for the first time, and 
took him for interrogation, I felt sorry for him.

"The interrogation specialists poured water over him and put him into a 
car. Then they drove with him through the night, and at that time it was 
very, very cold. Then they smeared him with mud and showed him to his 
father, who was also in custody. They had tried out other interrogation 
methods on him, but he wasn't to be brought to talk. The interrogation 
specialists told me, after the father had seen his son in this state, his 
heart broke. He wept and promised to tell them everything they wanted to know."

An Iraqi TV reporter Suhaib Badr-Addin al-Baz saw the Abu Ghraib children's 
wing when he was arrested by Americans while making a documentary. He spent 
74 days in Abu Ghraib.

"I saw a camp for children there," he said. "Boys, under the age of 
puberty. There were certainly hundreds of children in this camp." Al-Baz 
said he heard a 12-year-old girl crying. Her brother was also held in the 
jail. One night guards came into her cell. "She was beaten," said al-Baz. 
"I heard her call out, 'They have undressed me. They have poured water over 
me.'"

He says he heard her cries and whimpering daily - this, in turn, caused 
other prisoners to cry as they listened to her. Al-Baz also told of an ill 
15-year-old boy who was soaked repeatedly with hoses until he collapsed. 
Guards then brought in the child's father with a hood over his head. The 
boy collapsed again.

Although most of the children are held in US custody, the Sunday Herald has 
established that some are held by the British Army. British soldiers tend 
to arrest children in towns like Basra, which are under UK control, then 
hand the youngsters over to the Americans who interrogate them and detain them.

Between January and May this year the Red Cross registered a total of 107 
juveniles in detention during 19 visits to six coalition prisons. The aid 
organisation's Rana Sidani said they had no complete information about the 
ages of those detained, or how they had been treated. The deteriorating 
security situation has prevented the Red Cross visiting all detention centres.

  Amnesty International is outraged by the detention of children. It is 
aware of "numerous human rights violations against Iraqi juveniles, 
including detentions, torture and ill-treatment, and killings". Amnesty has 
interviewed former detainees who say they've seen boys as young as 10 in 
Abu Ghraib.

The organisation's leaders have called on the coalition governments to give 
concrete information on how old the children are, how many are detained, 
why and where they are being held, and in what circumstances they are being 
detained. They also want to know if the children have been tortured.

Alistair Hodgett, media director of Amnesty International USA, said the 
coalition forces needed to be "transparent" about their policy of child 
detentions, adding: "Secrecy is one thing that rings alarm bells." Amnesty 
was given brief access to one jail in Mosul, he said, but has been 
repeatedly turned away from all others. He pointed out that even countries 
"which don't have good records", such as Libya, gave Amnesty access to 
prisons. "Denying access just fuels the rumour mill," he said.

Hodgett added that British and US troops should not be detaining any Iraqis 
- let alone children - following the recent handover of power. "They should 
all be held by Iraqi authorities," he said. "When the coalition handed over 
Saddam they should have handed over the other 3000 detainees."

The British Ministry of Defence confirmed UK forces had handed over 
prisoners to US troops, but a spokes man said he did not know the ages of 
any detainees given to the Americans.

The MoD also admitted it was currently holding one prisoner aged under 18 
at Shaibah prison near Um Qasr. Since the invasion Britain has detained, 
and later released, 65 under-18s. The MoD claimed the ICRC had access to 
British jails and detainee lists.

High-placed officials in the Pentagon and Centcom told the Sunday Herald 
that children as young as 14 were being held by US forces. "We do have 
juveniles detained," a source said. "They have been detained as they are 
deemed to be a threat or because they have acted against the coalition or 
Iraqis."

Officially, the Pentagon says it is holding "around 60 juvenile detainees 
primarily aged 16 and 17", although when it was pointed out that the Red 
Cross estimate is substantially higher, a source admitted "numbers may have 
gone up, we might have detained more kids".

  Officials would not comment about children under the age of 16 being held 
prisoner. Sources said: ''It's a real challenge ascertaining their ages. 
Unlike the UK or the US, they don't have IDs or birth certificates." The 
Sunday Herald has been told, however, that at least five children aged 
under 16 are being kept at Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca.

A highly placed source in the Pentagon said: "We have done investigations 
into accusations of juveniles being abused and raped and can't find 
anything that resembles that."

The Pentagon's official policy is to segregate juvenile prisoners from the 
rest of the prison population, and allow young inmates to join family 
members also being detained. "Our main concern is that they are not abused 
or harassed by older detainees. We know they need special treatment," an 
official said.

Pentagon sources said they were unaware how long child prisoners were kept 
in jail but said their cases were reviewed every 90 days. The last review 
was early last month. The sources confirmed the children had been 
questioned and interrogated when initially detained, but could not say 
whether this was "an adult-style interrogation".

  The Norwegian government, which is part of the "coalition of the 
willing", has already said it will tell the US that the alleged torture of 
children is intolerable. Odd Jostein Sæter, parliamentary secretary at the 
Norwegian prime minister's office, said: "Such assaults are unacceptable. 
It is against international laws and it is also unacceptable from a moral 
point of view. This is why we react strongly Š We are addressing this in a 
very severe and direct way and present concrete demands. This is damaging 
the struggle for democracy and human rights in Iraq."

In Denmark, which is also in the coalition, Save the Children called on its 
government to tell the occupying forces to order the immediate release of 
child detainees. Neals Hurdal, head of the Danish Save the Children, said 
they had heard rumours of children in Basra being maltreated in custody 
since May.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said it was "extremely disturbed" that the 
coalition was holding children for long periods in jails notorious for 
torture. HRW also criticised the policy of categorising children as 
"security detainees", saying this did not give carte blanche for them to be 
held indefinitely. HRW said if there was evidence the children had 
committed crimes then they should be tried in Iraqi courts, otherwise they 
should be returned to their families.

Unicef is "profoundly disturbed" by reports of children being abused in 
coalition jails. Alexandra Yuster, Unicef's senior adviser on child 
detention, said that under international law children should be detained 
only as a last resort and only then for the shortest possible time.

They should have access to lawyers and their families, be kept safe, 
healthy, educated, well-fed and not be subjected to any form of mental or 
physical punishment, she added. Unicef is now "desperately" trying to get 
more information on the fate of the children currently detained in 
coalition jails.


Copyright © 2004 smg sunday newspapers ltd. no.176088



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