[A-List] Amid Mounting Deaths, Abuse Reports, US Commanders Raise Vietnam Parallel

[Rick Rozoff <r_rozoff@xxxxxxxxx>]

1) Baghdad Hotel Explosion Wounds Eight Foreigners,
Including Two Americans
2) Forty More Killed In Fresh Iraqi Violence
3) Iraqis Killed, British Troops Wounded In Southern
Iraq Fighting
4) US Troops Slay 19 Iraqis In Baghdad
5) 'Tense And Unpredictable': Bulgarian Base Attacked
In Karbala, Report Of US Casualties
6) Southern Iraq: Oil Cut Off As Pipelines Blaze
7) Oil Exports Cut In Half After Pipeline Blast
8) Shiite Cleric Declares War On Occupiers After US
Forces Kill 35 Followers, Destroy Headquarters
9) Four Poles Killed In Bloodiest Weekend
10) Abuse, Torture, Humiliation Widespread: Iraqi
Detainees Detail War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity
11) Iraqi Physical, Sexual Abuse Victims Include
Children
12) Pentagon: New Photos Show Beatings, Rape,
Desecration Of Corpse
13) 'Serious Violations Of International Law':
International Red Cross Says Torture, Killings 'Part
Of Process'
14) Unacceptable Breach Of International Law: Home Of
International Red Cross, Geneva Conventions,
Switzerland Condemns US, Britain For Iraq Prisoner
Abuse
15) In Last Address To South African Parliament,
Nelson Mandela Condemns US, Britain For Iraq Invasion,
Prisoner Abuse
16) Indonesia Urges Action Against Perpetrators Of
Iraqi Prisoner Abuse
17) Iran: Prisoner Abuse Worse Than Reported, Still
Occurring; 'Bush Must Be Tried As Head Of Torturers'
18) Ankara: 20,000 Turks Protest 'Western
Civilization: Occupation And Rape'
19) Senior US Military Commanders: As With Vietnam, US
Is Winning Battles But Losing War
20) Vietnam Draws Parallels Between Atrocities In
Iraq, Indochina, Demands Perpetrators Be Brought To
Justice



1)
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=795189&PageNum=0

Itar-Tass (Russia)
May 10, 2004


Explosion in Baghdad hotel wounds foreigners


KUWAIT CITY - The Four Seasons hotel in Baghdad was
rocked by a powerful explosion on Sunday evening.

The Qatari Al-Jazeera television channel reported that
eight foreigners, including two U.S. citizens, were
wounded.

The Dubai Al-Arabia television channel reported about
five wounded, including two Iraqi guards.

The U.S. troops cordoned off the hotel area right
after the blast.
------------------------------------------------------
2)
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_10-5-2004_pg1_5

Daily Times (Pakistan)
May 10, 2004

40 killed in fresh Iraq violence

* Clashes in Kufa, Basra, Karbala
* 7 killed in Baghdad market bombing

BAGHDAD - Clashes between coalition forces and Shia
cleric Moqtada Sadr?s Mehdi Army left 30 people dead
across Iraq on Sunday. Ten more died in other
violence.

The US military killed 19 militiamen in Baghdad.
Eighteen were killed in one clash when US troops moved
in after militiamen began setting up checkpoints in
Sadr City, the military said.

The clashes came after six men were arrested in a US
raid on one of the cleric?s offices in Sadr City. They
included Sayed Amer al-Husseini, apparently
responsible for eastern Baghdad operations, and Amjed
al-Swedi, a Sadr financier. An AFP correspondent said
one Sadr supporter was killed and another wounded
during the raid.

Militiamen were also involved in violence in the
central southern cities of Diwaniyah, Karbala, Najaf
and Kufa. In Kufa on Sunday, four Iraqis were killed
and 12 others injured, including four children, in
fresh fighting, according to hospital sources. Two
Iraqis were killed in gun battles between the Mehdi
Army and US-led forces in Karbala, medical sources
told AFP. Two others were seriously wounded in about
three hours of fighting that broke out in the
afternoon near the Al-Mokhayam mosque, close to a Sadr
office.

Four civilians were killed and a fifth was wounded
when British troops responded to mortar fire from
Mehdi Army militiamen in Amarah early on Sunday,
police and medical sources said.

Seven people, including a four-year-old boy and two
police officers, were killed as police tried to defuse
a bomb in a crowded Baghdad market, according to
witnesses and hospital sources. Another eight people
were wounded.

One other policeman was killed in a roof-top attack on
a patrol by four black-clad militiamen, while a senior
police official was assassinated in Baquba, 65
kilometres northeast of Baghdad.

The US military reported that one of its soldiers was
killed and another wounded on Saturday in a mortar
attack on the coalition base in Mosul. An oil pipeline
supplying Basra caught fire on Sunday after a
suspected sabotage attack, said firemen.

The new provincial governor for Najaf will join tribal
and religious leaders from the city to try to form a
delegation to meet with Sadr, a senior police officer
told AFP on Sunday. ?Agencies
------------------------------------------------------
3)
http://www.hindu.com/2004/05/10/stories/2004051001771600.htm


Associated Press
May 10, 2004

Clashes continue in Basra


BAGHDAD - U.S. and British troops clashed on Sunday
with forces of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada Al
Sadr, for a second day, and four Iraqis were killed in
an explosion in a Baghdad market.

Three British soldiers were wounded in a blast in
Basra.

Mr. Al Sadr's militia fired mortar shells before dawn
on Sunday at the Governor's office and other British
positions in Amarah, 290 km southeast of Baghdad, a
British official and residents said.

No British casualties were reported in that attack,
but British spokesman Maj. Ian Clooney said ``a number
of possible mortar positions'' were destroyed.

Maj. Clooney denied statements by local residents that
British helicopters were used to attack the
insurgents.

The militia launched attacks on Saturday in Basra and
Amarah in an apparent attempt to open up new fronts as
American troops stepped up pressure on the cleric's
stronghold around the Shia holy cities of Najaf, Kufa
and Karbala.

Intensifying skirmishes in the region have killed
dozens in the past week.

U.S. authorities vowed to kill or capture Mr. Al Sadr
after he was charged in the murder of a rival cleric
last year.

The U.S.-led coalition would like to disband his
militia, the Mahdi army, before political power is
transferred to a new Iraqi government on June 30.

Also on Sunday, scattered clashes occurred between
U.S. and militia forces in the industrial area of
Najaf, where Mr. Al Sadr sought refuge last month.

Plumes of black smoke could be seen rising from the
area. Iraqi police and U.S. tanks blocked the main
road from Najaf to nearby Kufa, residents said.

In Baghdad's Shia enclave Sadr City, the cleric's
militia burned tires in the streets to try to keep
American troops from entering the area.

Residents of Amarah said a British helicopter fired on
houses in the city's Sadeq district, killing four
civilians and destroying several houses. British
officials denied that helicopters were used in the
operation.

In Basra, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Amarah,
three coalition soldiers were wounded when a large
explosion occurred near a coalition convoy Sunday
morning, Maj. Clooney said. Witnesses said the wounded
soldiers were British.

The explosion in Baghdad occurred in a market in the
Biyaa district in the west of the city when police
tried to dismantle two bombs found in vendors' stalls,
witnesses said.
------------------------------------------------------
4)
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Articles.asp?Article=81270&Sn=WORL


Gulf Daily News (Bahrain)
May 10, 2004

19 Iraqi fighters slain

-"There were about four different incidents in
Baghdad, resulting in a total of three Iraqi police
killed, six civilians killed, eight police wounded and
nine civilians wounded," [US Brigadier General Mark
Kimmitt] said.
He also said a "total of 19 enemy" were killed in
clashes involving US forces....


BAGHDAD - Nineteen Iraqi insurgents were killed in
four separate clashes with US-led forces in Baghdad
yesterday, US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said.
Violence also continues to trouble the run-up to a
planned handover of sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30.

An explosion at a crowded market in Baghdad killed at
least three Iraqis and wounded nine, including six
policemen.

"There were about four different incidents in Baghdad,
resulting in a total of three Iraqi police killed, six
civilians killed, eight police wounded and nine
civilians wounded," he said.

He also said a "total of 19 enemy" were killed in
clashes involving US forces and followers of radical
Shi'ite cleric Moqtada Sadr.

Eighteen of those were killed at the cleric's
stronghold in the Shi'ite district of Sadr city when
US forces moved to break up checkpoints put up by his
forces there.

And in central Baghdad, four men wearing the black of
Sadr's Mehdi Army fired at police from the top of a
building.

The clashes followed an operation earlier when US
forces seized two key players in the Mehdi army,
including a financier and a man responsible for
eastern Baghdad operations, according to Kimmitt.

New exchanges of fire were heard between Sadr's
followers and US-led forces in the centre of Karbala,
witnesses said.

The streets emptied at the first sound of shooting
around the Al Mokhayam mosque, close to a Sadr office.

Meanwhile, the police officer heading criminal
investigations in Baqubah died in hospital after being
shot in the city centre, police said.

In Basra, three British soldiers were wounded when an
explosive device was hurled at their vehicle in the
southern port city, a spokeswoman for Britain's
ministry of defence said. A British convoy also came
under fire in the city but there were no casualties in
this attack.

In a third incident, a homemade device exploded as a
British military convoy drove along the seafront road,
again without causing casualties, a British officer
said.

A US soldier was killed and another wounded on
Saturday in a mortar attack on the coalition base in
the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the US army
announced.

The army said the wounded soldier had been evacuated
to the military hospital in Mosul.
------------------------------------------------------
5)
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=34491

Novinite (Bulgaria)
May 10, 2004

Bulgarians Attacked in Karbala

Mortars were fired at a Bulgarian patrol in Karbala,
officials disclosed.

There were no Bulgarian casualties in the incident,
which took place early on Monday morning.

However, Bulgaria's Defense Ministry informed that
situation in the city remained tense and
"unpredictable."

Witnesses have reported five Iraqi deaths. There was
also information about wounded US soldiers, but their
number was not immediately specified.
------------------------------------------------------
6)
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/10/1084041339762.html


Sydney Morning Herald
May 11, 2004

Oil cut off as sabotaged pipeline blazes

Baghdad: Iraq has halted oil exports from its vital
southern terminals after saboteurs blew up a pipeline
feeding them.

Only two weeks earlier US-led forces had foiled
suicide boat attacks on tankers at the terminal.

A spokesman for the US Army Corps of Engineers, Steve
Wright, said the pipeline was still ablaze at the tip
of the Faw Peninsula after the weekend attack.

In continuing violence early yesterday, 16 suspected
members of the Mehdi Army of the rebel preacher
Moqtada al-Sadr were killed in eight running battles
in the Baghdad Shiite slum of Sadr City, a US military
officer said.

"The likelihood of them being Sadr militia fighters is
high," the officer said.

Their deaths followed the killing of 19 Mehdi fighters
in the neighbourhood on Sunday.

Also early yesterday, US aircraft bombed Sadr's
offices in Sadr City. Witnesses said a huge orange
burst of flame rose high in the air as at least one
bomb fell on the single-storey building and virtually
destroyed it.

US forces had earlier raided the Sadr City office and
arrested two people. A military spokesman said one of
them was said to be a Mehdi Army financier.

The raid was part of a stepped-up military campaign
against an uprising launched by Sadr a month ago.
Yesterday, a senior aide to Sadr, Qais al-Khazali,
said Sadr had ordered his militia to spread their
battle against US troops across Iraq.

In other violence, a police official said gunmen
killed a South African, an Iraqi and a New Zealander
in a drive-by shooting in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk
yesterday.

The foreigners were engineers and the Iraqi was their
driver, the official said.

The South African Foreign Ministry also confirmed
yesterday that another of its nationals had died in
Iraq, the sixth to be killed since the invasion began.


The Arabic television station Al-Jazeera yesterday
aired a video tape it said was from an unknown Iraqi
group that vowed to kidnap and kill Arab and foreign
workers - especially Kuwaitis - in the southern city
of Basra.

The tape showed a group of masked men, some holding
automatic rifles, and one man reading a statement.

Violence in Basra, which is near Iraq's southern
border with Kuwait, has intensified in recent weeks
since the US led forces began their crackdown on
Sadr's militia. Hundreds of his Mehdi Army fighters
fought running battles with British troops in Basra on
Saturday after suffering heavy losses in other Shiite
cities.

In another development, a US Marines convoy entered
Falluja for the first time in more than a month
yesterday. It was a test for the shaky truce that has
been negotiated with insurgents in Iraq's most
rebellious town, observers said.

Marines, accompanied by Iraqi security forces
entrusted with eventually taking over security,
arrived without incident at the mayor's office in the
town centre in their armoured vehicles and Humvees.

But the calm in Falluja has not eased the fears of
Iraqi security forces, who are afraid that they will
suffer the fate of hundreds of their comrades who have
been killed by insurgents for co-operating with the
Americans.

US forces laid siege to Falluja last month after four
American contractors were killed and mutilated in the
town.

Hundreds of Iraqis, many of them civilians, died when
marines launched attacks.

Reuters, Agence France-Presse
------------------------------------------------------
7)
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/may2004-daily/10-05-2004/main/update.shtml#28


Agence France-Presse
May 10, 2004

Pipeline blast in southern Iraq halves oil exports:
officials


BASRA, IRAQ - Oil exports from the southern port of
Basra have been halved by a pipeline blast, Iraqi oil
officials told AFP Monday.

"We have dropped from an average of 80,000 barrels per
hour to 40,000 barrels per hour," said engineer Ali
Nasr al-Rubaie, director of the main port terminal.

Hamad al-Assadi, an executive director at the
terminal, also confirmed the figure.

An oil pipeline supplying one of Iraq's southern
exporting terminals was lit ablaze Sunday in a
suspected sabotage attack.

Columns of flame and smoke were seen coming from the
pipeline in an area 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of
the southern city of Basra.

Oil pipelines have been a popular target of insurgents
seeking to disrupt an industry the United States
expects to provide part of the funds required to
rebuild the nation's shattered infrastructure.
------------------------------------------------------
8)
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=34494


Novinite (Bulgaria)
May 10, 2004

Iraq Cleric Declares War on Occupiers

Rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has called on all
his supporters to wage a war on the occupiers on the
whole territory of Iraq.

We ran out of patience, we have now entered a second
phase of resistance, said Sadr's chief aide at his
main base in the holy city of Najaf.

Earlier in the day US forces killed 35 militants and
destroyed the offices of the radical cleric.
------------------------------------------------------
9)
http://www.wbj.pl/?command=article&id=22417&;

Warsaw Business Journal
May 10, 2004

Four Poles killed in black weekend in Iraq


Waldemar Milewicz, TVP war correspondent, was killed
on Friday in Iraq when terrorist attacked a car
carrying Polish journalists.

Algerian-Polish film editor Mounir Bouamrane was also
killed in the attack, while a third Polish journalist,
Jerzy Ernst, is in hospital with a serious arm injury.
It was a black weekend in Iraq as another two Polish
soldiers died on Saturday, bringing the death toll of
Poles in Iraq up to six. Marek Krajewski, senior
ensign, died in a road accident south of Karbala and
Captain S³awomir Stró¿ak was wounded by a remotely
detonated mine several hours later. Despite immediate
medical help, Stró¿ak died in a hospital in Baghdad.
All major TV stations and newspapers were outraged
with the front page of Saturday's issue of Super
Express. The tabloid published close-up photo of dead
journalist Waldemar Milewicz on its front page. The
Media Ethics Council condemned the behavior. However,
TV station Al-Jazeera said that luck has less to do
with the Poles' deaths and had more to do with the
fact that they were very specifically targeted by
terrorists. If this true, it would have wider and very
grave implications.
------------------------------------------------------
10)
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_10-5-2004_pg7_40


Reuters
May 10, 2004

Iraqi detainees allege torture in US-run jails

-Several times American officers pointed a pistol at
one of the brothers to force the others to talk, he
said. ?They told me if you don?t talk we will bring
your mothers and sisters here,? al-Hammad said. The
al-Hammad brothers showed a photograph of a body
marked extensively with bruises and burns, which they
said was their father, who surrendered to US forces
after his sons were detained.



BAGHDAD - Torture, abuse and humiliation of prisoners
is widespread in US-run detention centres in Iraq, and
not limited to a few cases, non-governmental
organisations in Iraq and an American Christian group
said on Sunday.

?We are here to tell the world that the cases of
torture of Iraqi prisoners are not isolated incidents
and they are not limited to Abu Ghraib prison, nor to
the six US MPs,? a spokeswoman for the Iraqi Human
Rights Organization (IHRO) told a news conference in
Baghdad. Seven US Military Police (MPs) have been
charged with abusing Iraqi prisoners after a global
scandal erupted with the publication of photographs of
naked detainees being humiliated at Abu Ghraib prison
just outside Baghdad.

US spokesman Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said
Specialist Jeremy Sivits would face a court martial in
Baghdad next week, accused of abusing detainees.

US President George W. Bush has said the acts were
?the wrongdoing of a few? and did not reflect the
character of the 200,000 military personnel who have
served in Iraq.

But rights groups disputed those assertions. ?These
are part of a systematic method of torture and inhuman
treatment,? the IHRO spokeswoman said. People who said
they had been victims of torture and relatives of
detainees told the news conference of their degrading
treatment in the US prisons. None of the accounts
could be verified independently and there was no
immediate comment on these specific cases from the US
military. However, Kimmitt told a separate news
conference all allegations would be investigated.

?The primary objective is to point out that there are
systematic abuses taking place in the American
prisons,? said Stewart Vriesinga of the Christian
Peacemakers Team.

?Iraqis are treated in a dehumanised way.?

Issam al-Hammad said the Americans came to his village
near al-Qaim on the Syrian border looking for his
father, Abid Hammad al-Mahoosh, a major general in the
disbanded Iraqi army. He wasn?t there, so they took
Issam and his three brothers, the youngest of them age
16. ?We spent five and a half months in four detention
centres,? Issam al-Hammad said. Al-Hammad, who is in
his late 20s, said they were beaten and given
electrical shocks. ?I was naked apart from my
underpants and they poured water on my back and then
electrified me with an electrical stick,? he said.

Several times American officers pointed a pistol at
one of the brothers to force the others to talk, he
said. ?They told me if you don?t talk we will bring
your mothers and sisters here,? al-Hammad said. The
al-Hammad brothers showed a photograph of a body
marked extensively with bruises and burns, which they
said was their father, who surrendered to US forces
after his sons were detained.
------------------------------------------------------
11)
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,9502566%255E1702,00.html


Herald Sun (Australia)
May 10, 2004


Abused Iraqis 'included children'
>From correspondents in London


A young Iraqi girl held at Abu Ghraib prison was
stripped naked and beaten while her brother heard her
scream from another cell, a British television station
reported today.

The ITV News report quoted Suhaib al-Baz, 24, a
cameraman for the Arab satellite TV network
Al-Jazeera, as saying he saw the abuse while he was
being held at the prison.
Earlier, al-Baz had told The Associated Press he had
been stripped, beaten, spat upon and deprived of sleep
during his 74-day stint in US Army custody.

Soldiers took "torture shots" with their personal
cameras, he said. In one case, al-Baz said he saw a
soldier's computer screen emblazoned with a backdrop
picture of a hooded, handcuffed prisoner being
attacked by a dog.

ITV News quoted al-Baz as saying he saw a 12 or
13-year-old Iraqi girl brought into the prison.

Late at night, he said, she was brought in front of
his and other prison cells, naked and screaming. Her
brother, held in an upper cell, heard her scream and
call out for his help, said al-Baz.

Another time, al-Baz said, he saw a 15-year-old Iraqi
boy, who was ill, being forced to hold two heavy cans
of water and run up and down a corridor. If the boy
stopped, he was beaten with a stick by an American
soldier, ITV quoted al-Baz as saying.

"He collapsed from exhaustion, so they stripped him
and poured cold water over him," al-Baz said.

A naked, hooded man was brought into the area and
placed face-to-face with the boy. When the man's hood
was removed, the boy was shocked to see his father and
collapsed, al-Baz said.

The American soldiers "then forced his father to wear
a bra and a pair of knickers" and laughed, al-Baz
said.

ITV said al-Baz had been arrested by US forces in
Tikrit, Iraq, in early November while covering clashes
between insurgents.
------------------------------------------------------
12)
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/15731.shtml


The Herald (Scotland)
May 10, 2004

An inmate?s terror in Abu Ghraib
CAMERON SIMPSON

-US military officials were quoted as saying that the
unreleased images showed American soldiers "severely
beating an Iraqi prisoner nearly to death, having sex
with a female Iraqi prisoner", and "acting
inappropriately with a dead body".


Contorted with terror, a naked Iraqi prisoner stands
quaking against a cell door at Abu Ghraib prison as
two German shepherds strain at their leashes to get at
him. Two US Army dog handlers, in full camouflage
combat gear, hold the snarling animals in check.
The respite is only temporary. In another photograph,
taken a few minutes later, the Iraqi is lying on the
ground, writhing in pain, with a soldier sitting on
top of him, knee pressed to his back. Blood is
streaming from the inmate's leg.
Another is a close-up of the naked prisoner, from his
waist to his ankles, lying on the floor. On his right
thigh is what appears to be a bite or a deep scratch.
There is another, larger wound on his left leg,
covered in blood.
His distress could have been heightened by the fact
that many Muslims regard dogs as unclean.
As these new photographs of maltreatment of Iraqi
prisoners emerged yesterday in the New Yorker
magazine, Tony Blair became personally involved in the
row, apologising to any Iraqi prisoners abused by
British soldiers.
....
The first images were revealed by US television 10
days ago and have caused a furore around the world.
Last night, as the scandal threatened to engulf Donald
Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary who has assumed
responsibility, a Pentagon official said that more
shocking images, including video and featuring
"live-action abuse", could be released soon.
US military officials were quoted as saying that the
unreleased images showed American soldiers "severely
beating an Iraqi prisoner nearly to death, having sex
with a female Iraqi prisoner", and "acting
inappropriately with a dead body".
....
------------------------------------------------------
13)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1105335.htm

Reuters
May 10, 2004

Red Cross told Iraq abuse 'part of the process'


The Red Cross saw US troops keeping Iraqi prisoners
naked for days in darkness at the Abu Ghraib jail in
October and was told by the intelligence officer in
charge it was "part of the process", a leaked report
said

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
also described British troops forcing Iraqi detainees
to kneel and stomping on their necks in an incident in
which one prisoner died.

The Red Cross said it had repeatedly alerted US-led
occupation authorities to practices it described as
"serious violations of international humanitarian law"
and "in some cases tantamount to torture".

The Red Cross confirmed the confidential February 4
report, which appeared on the Wall Street Journal
website on Monday, was genuine.

The 24-page report concluded that "persons deprived of
their liberty face the risk of being subjected to a
process of physical and psychological coercion, in
some cases tantamount to torture, in the early stages
of the internment process".

During a visit to Abu Ghraib in October, Red Cross
delegates witnessed "the practice of keeping persons
deprived of their liberty completely naked in totally
empty concrete cells and in total darkness," the
report said.

"Upon witnessing such cases, the ICRC interrupted its
visits and requested an explanation from the
authorities. The military intelligence officer in
charge of the interrogation explained that this
practice was 'part of the process.'"

It said it met prisoners who were being held naked in
complete darkness.

Others had been held naked and were allowed to dress,
but given only women's underwear.

The Red Cross's visit took place two months before
pictures were taken of US troops abusing prisoners,
which later led to criminal charges against seven
soldiers.

International outrage

Those pictures appeared in the media last month,
causing international outrage and prompting apologies
by US President George W Bush and other senior
officials.

However, Washington has said it believed the practices
were isolated incidents of aberrant behaviour by
individuals and not its usual practice.

Although much of the abuse described in the report
appears to have taken place in jails run by US forces,
the report also describes the death of an Iraqi
prisoner in custody in the British zone Basra last
September.

His name is blacked out.

A spokesman for Britain's Defence Ministry said the
allegation was not new, but appeared to be a reference
to the death of an Iraqi detainee named Baha Musa,
which Britain says it has been investigating since
last year.

The Red Cross report described him as one of nine men
arrested in a Basra hotel and "made to kneel, face and
hands against the ground, as if in a prayer position.
The soldiers stamped on the back of the neck of those
raising their head".

It said the death certificate for the Iraqi prisoner
listed his cause of death as a heart attack.

"An eyewitness description of the body given to the
ICRC mentioned a broken nose, several broken ribs and
skin lesions on the face consistent with beatings."

The report describes prison guards opening fire with
live ammunition during riots and escape attempts, on
detainees who "were unarmed and did not appear to pose
any serious threat to anyone's life".

According to the report, the Red Cross repeatedly drew
allegations of mistreatment to the attention of the
authorities.

In some cases, they changed practices, for example,
they stopped issuing wristbands marked "terrorist" to
all foreign detainees.

Among the "serious violations of international
humanitarian law", the report listed a failure to set
up a system to notify family members of arrests.

"The uncaring behaviour of the CF (coalition forces)
and their inability to quickly provide accurate
information on persons deprived of their liberty for
the families concerned also seriously affects the
image of the occupying powers amongst the Iraqi
population," it said.
------------------------------------------------------
14)
http://www.nzz.ch/2004/05/10/english/page-synd4923089.html

Neue Zuercher Zeitung
May 10, 2004

Switzerland condemns abuse of Iraqi prisoners


The Swiss foreign minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey, has
condemned the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by
coalition forces.

On Friday she summoned the United States and British
ambassadors to express her outrage and denounce the
abuse as an unacceptable breach of humanitarian law.

Calmy-Rey said she told both countries that the
mistreatment of prisoners contravened international
regulations.

During a meeting at the Swiss foreign ministry, she
reminded them that Switzerland - as the depository
state of the Geneva Conventions - had a special
obligation to ensure that humanitarian law was upheld.

?We cannot keep silent about such incidents,?
Calmy-Rey said in an interview with the
?SonntagsBlick? newspaper.

Her remarks come just days after the Swiss-run
International Committee of the Red Cross revealed that
it had warned Washington a year ago about alleged
prisoner abuse.

At the end of last month pictures were published of
coalition forces humiliating and mistreating inmates
at the Abu Ghraib jail in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

Responsibility

The foreign ministry said Washington and London had
pledged to investigate the reported cases of abuse.

Calmy-Rey called for the perpetrators to be punished
and said the US had a special responsibility to
respect international humanitarian law.

She added that Switzerland had been asked by the Iraqi
interim governing council to lead efforts to monitor
human rights in the country.

Calmy-Rey also used her interview with the newspaper
to appeal for a swift transition of power in Baghdad
and an end to the occupation of Iraq.

In an apparent reference to the US authorities, the
Swiss foreign minister said difficulties could not be
solved by violence. She reiterated calls for the
United Nations and the international community to take
a greater role in Iraq.

She added that Switzerland had expressed concern a
year ago that military intervention in Iraq could
destabilise the whole region.

?It makes me sad to see that our assessment of the
situation appears to have been accurate,? said
Calmy-Rey.
------------------------------------------------------
15)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4073829,00.html

Associated Press
May 10, 2004

Mandela Denounces Iraq Prisoner Abuse
By ELLIOTT SYLVESTER



CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - Former President Nelson
Mandela, lashed out Monday at the United States and
Britain for the invasion of Iraq and abuse of Iraqi
prisoners.

``We watch as two of the leading democracies, two
leading nations of the free world, get involved in a
war that the United Nations did not sanction,''
Mandela said in a special session of Parliament.

``We look on with horror as reports surface of
terrible abuses against the dignity of human beings
held captive by invading forces in their own country,
said Mandela.

The U.S. military next week will begin the first in a
series of courts-martial that could produce new
revelations whether the mistreatment of Iraqis was an
aberration or stemmed from pressure from commanders.
Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain apologized Sunday
for any abuse of prisoners by British troops, but
insisted the allegation, if true, applied to a small
number of soldiers.

Mandela spoke to a joint session of both houses of
Parliament in a special session to mark the 10th
anniversary of his inauguration as the first black
president of South Africa.

Mandela, a frequent critic of the war in Iraq, was
applauded by members of Parliament as he repeated his
criticism of the United States and Britain.

``We see how the powerful countries - all of them
democracies - manipulate multilateral bodies to the
great disadvantage and suffering of the poorer
developing nations,'' said Mandela. ``There is enough
reason for cynicism and despair.''
....
------------------------------------------------------
16)
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillatestnews.asp?fileid=20040510182251&irec=2

The Jakarta Post
May 10, 2004

Indonesia urges U.S. action over Iraq prisoner abuse


JAKARTA (Reuters): Indonesia, the world's most
populous Muslim country, urged the United States on
Monday to take action against troops accused of
abusing prisoners in Iraq.

Speaking after a meeting with visiting U.S. Assistant
Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs
James Kelly, Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said the
poor treatment of Iraqi prisoners was a form of
torture.

"We strongly deplore acts such as that. We hope that
the U.S. government takes action as they have promised
to give no legal immunity to the perpetrators of those
cruel acts," he told reporters.

Indonesia has long been a close U.S. ally and a
supporter of the U.S.-led war on terror but it opposed
the invasion of Iraq.

The scandal over the Iraqi prisoners exploded last
week with the release of photographs showing grinning
uniformed personnel posing in front of naked
detainees.

The first of seven U.S. personnel charged with abusing
detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison is due to be
court martialled later this month in a public trial in
Baghdad.

The images and have caused a furor around the world
and President George W. Bush apologized on Thursday.
------------------------------------------------------
17)
http://www.bgnewsnet.com/story.php?sid=4953


Bulgarian News Network
Reuters
May 10, 2004

Iran Says Has Evidence of Worse Abuses in Iraq


TEHRAN (BGNES)- Revolutionary Guards spokesman
Brigadier Massoud Jazayeri said he would shortly make
public the documents, which would show that the abuse
of Iraqi prisoners was still taking place.

"There are documents obtained via a certain channel
which show that this (abuse) has been practiced since
long ago and is far worse than what has been leaked,"
Jazayeri told the ISNA students news agency.

"American officials, particularly the defense
secretary (Donald Rumsfeld) have expressed their
remorse about the incident. Nevertheless, such
tortures are still taking place," he said.

The United States has been rocked in recent days by a
series of graphic images showing prisoners being
humiliated and mistreated.

Britain, Washington's main ally in the occupation, is
also investigating reports its troops have abused
Iraqi prisoners.

Jazayeri said it was clear that U.S. President George
W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair had been
fully aware of the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners.

"Bush must be tried as the head of the American
torturers in Iraq," he said.

Iran and the United States have been arch enemies
since shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution when
radical Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in
Tehran and held 52 hostages for 444 days.
------------------------------------------------------
18)
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B9CEB8F7-24DF-4247-8A2C-FC3967ADAE1F.htm

Agence France-Press
May 10, 2004

Turks protest at US abuse in Iraq


Thousands of demonstrators have protested in the
centre of Istanbul in protest against the US presence
in Iraq and the treatment of Iraqi detainees.

An estimated 20,000 people took part in the
demonstration, which was organised by a pro-Islamist
party.

Protesters shouted anti-American slogans and burned a
poster showing US President George Bush.

Allegations of abuse of prisoners by US and British
troops have shocked opinion in Muslim Turkey which
borders Iraq.

Watched by a large number of police the protesters
shouted slogans such as "USA murders", "Western
civilisation: occupation and rape", and "Down with
Israel" before dispersing peacefully.

Political leaders have denounced the "inhumane" and
"repugnant" behaviour of US troops.

Turkey, the only Muslim nation to belong to NATO,
declined to let the US-led occupation use its
territory before the 2003 war against ousted Iraqi
president Saddam Hussein.
------------------------------------------------------
19)
http://www.dawn.com/2004/05/10/int4.htm

Dawn (Pakistan)
May 10, 2004

US winning battles, but losing war, says report
By Our Correspondent


-"Unless we ensure that we have coherency in our
policy, we will lose strategically," said Col. Hughes
who lost his brother in Vietnam. "Here I am, 30 years
(after Vietnam), thinking we will win every fight and
lose the war, because we don't understand the war
we're in."


WASHINGTON: Senior US military commanders have begun
to say that although militarily the United States is
winning, strategically it is losing in Iraq, the
Washington Post reported on Sunday.

In a long, 2,400-word, front page article, which
includes interviews with several senior commanders,
the newspaper highlights two major fears: US
casualties in Iraq may increase as the fighting
continues and it is becoming increasingly difficult to
hand over power to an Iraqi government.

"The major worry is that the United States is
prevailing militarily but failing to win the support
of the Iraqi people. That view is far from universal,
but it is spreading and being voiced publicly for the
first time," the report said.

Army Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack Jr., the commander
of the 82nd Airborne Division, who spent much of the
year in western Iraq, said he believed that at the
tactical level, the US military was still winning. But
when asked whether he believed the United States was
losing, he said, "I think strategically, we are."

Army Col. Paul Hughes, who last year was the first
director of strategic planning for the US occupation
authority in Baghdad, said a pattern of winning
battles while losing a war characterized the US
failure in Vietnam.

"Unless we ensure that we have coherency in our
policy, we will lose strategically," said Col. Hughes
who lost his brother in Vietnam. "Here I am, 30 years
(after Vietnam), thinking we will win every fight and
lose the war, because we don't understand the war
we're in."

The Post said the debate among senior US military
commanders revolves around a key question: how to end
a festering insurrection that has made many Iraqis
feel less safe and created uncertainty about who
actually will run the country after June 30 when power
is transferred to an Iraqi government.

The report pointed out that among career army officers
an extraordinary anger is building at Defence
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his top advisers.

Some of the commanders interviewed by the Post said
it's important to sack Mr Rumsfeld and Deputy
Secretary Paul Wolfowitz for the restructuring of
America's Iraq policy because they are responsible for
a series of strategic and tactical blunders over the
past year.
------------------------------------------------------
20)
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/84036/1/.html


Agence France-Presse
May 10, 2004

Vietnam gets revenge with swipe at US over Iraq


-"The Iraqi people themselves were victims of these
lies, freedom and democracy are still nowhere to be
seen while their compatriots are being killed and
humiliated by the 'liberators'."




HANOI - Unable to resist the opportunity to take a
swipe at the United States, its former enemy and
principal human rights critic, Vietnam has compared
the abuse of prisoners in Iraq with atrocities
committed by American soldiers during the Vietnam War.

In a lengthy, hard-hitting commentary entitled "US no
longer fit for peacekeeper's role in Iraq", the
state-controlled Vietnam News Agency accused
Washington of double standards.

"It is time for the US, a nation which allows itself
to consider the implementation of human rights
anywhere in the world, to explain its soldiers'
violation of human rights," the report said Friday.

"The US people should know the US administration has
deliberately concealed and falsely portrayed the image
of US troops."

The United States has faced mounting international
anger over the past week after graphic photographs of
Iraqi detainees being abused by American soldiers were
shown around the world. British troops have also been
implicated.
....

On Friday, the Vietnamese foreign ministry formally
denounced the abuse of Iraqi prisoners and called for
the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

"These acts have seriously violated human rights and
international rules, especially the Geneva Conventions
on protecting prisoners and victims of war," ministry
spokesman Le Dung said in a statement.

He stopped short, however, of drawing comparisons with
the Vietnam War, during which an estimated three
million Vietnamese were killed.

The Vietnam News Agency had no such qualms.

"Such cruel action is not unfamiliar to US soldiers,"
it said pointing to the recent Pulitzer Prize-winning
expose by The Toledo Blade, an American newspaper,
into alleged war crimes committed by an elite US Army
unit.

The investigative report by the Ohio daily, "Buried
Secrets, Brutal Truths", was published in October last
year in a four-part series.

The articles detailed how the US Army failed to stop
the atrocities carried out by the 101st Airborne
Division's elite Tiger Force unit in the Central
Highlands of southern Vietnam in 1967 after commanders
were told about them.

The Blade claimed that that the Army's initial
investigation had uncovered war crimes committed by 18
soldiers during a seven-month period. The case,
however, was closed in 1975 after four years of
investigations and no charges were ever pressed.

The most infamous atrocity committed by US troops
during the war occurred in hamlet of My Lai, in which
504 civilians, mostly women, children and the elderly,
were butchered on March 16, 1968.

The US military attempted to cover up the massacre,
the darkest chapter of its involvement in Indochina,
but its eventual exposure helped turn the tide in
favour of the anti-war effort in the United States.

"Nearly 30 years after the war, people are still
horrified at the corporal punishment meted out by US
soldiers who are citizens of a free world and the
leading civilised society," the Vietnam News Agency
said.

"The incident has undermined US prestige and posed
serious problems for the Bush administration at a time
when the presidential election is fast approaching.

"In fact, US prestige was lowered right when the US
invaded and then occupied Iraq, and the latest
incident is only another layer of 'icing on the
cake'," it added.

The editorial also accused the US and British
governments of "deceiving their people" with their
justification for last year's invasion of Iraq.

"The Iraqi people themselves were victims of these
lies, freedom and democracy are still nowhere to be
seen while their compatriots are being killed and
humiliated by the 'liberators'."








	
		
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