Newsgroup: it.cultura.antagonista
Titolo: croce rossa ha osservato abusi diffusi

Il maltrattamento dei prigionieri irakeni in custodia alle forze usa non è
limitato a casi isolati ma fa parte di un quadro sistematico. 
Red Cross saw 'widespread abuse' 
The mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners in US custody is not limited to
isolated cases but forms part of a systematic pattern, the Red Cross has
said. 
A spokesman said the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had
been warning the US about such cases for more than a year. 
He was responding to the publication of parts of a leaked ICRC report. 
The document concluded that abuse of Iraqi detainees was widespread and in
some cases tantamount to torture. 
The Red Cross mentions a number of "serious violations of humanitarian
law", including beatings and prolonged solitary confinement. 
The report says abuses have been committed at a number of facilities - not
just Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, which is the focus of allegations
against US soldiers. 
COALITION-RUN JAILS 
8,000 prisoners held in 14 separate jails 
Three main prisons - Abu Ghraib and Camp Cropper in west Baghdad; Camp
Bucca, near Umm Qasr - hold inmates for extended periods 
Almost all inmates are "security internees"- suspected of posing a threat
to the coalition 
Other facilities where mistreatment allegedly occurred include al-Baghdadi
air base, Hubbania camp, Tikrit holding area, the ministry of defence and
the presidential palace in Baghdad. 
The ICRC has a strict policy of never publicly releasing its reports into
prison conditions. 
But on Friday the Wall Street Journal quoted parts of the 24-page report.
It alleges, among other things, that prisoners were kept naked in cells, in
darkness and without facilities. 
It says prisoners were beaten, in one case leading to death, and that
soldiers fired on unarmed prisoners from watchtowers, killing some of them. 
The report concludes there have been serious violations of the Geneva
Conventions governing the treatment of prisoners of war. 
The report says the ill-treatment was widely tolerated, especially with
regard to extracting information from Iraqis. 
Warnings 
The report is at odds with the position of the US government, which insists
that cases of abuses were isolated. 
ICRC director of operations, Pierre Kraehenbuehl, disputed this. 
"We were dealing here with a broad pattern, not individual acts. There was
a pattern and a system," he said. 
Mr Kraehenbuehl said that over the last year the Red Cross had repeatedly
warned the Bush administration that the conditions at the Abu Ghraib needed
changing. 
"Our findings were discussed at different moments between March and
November 2003, either in direct face-to-face conversations or in written
interventions," he said. 
He added that ICRC delegates in Iraq had also expressed concern about the
conditions of prisoners held in UK-run detention centres. 
The British newspaper the Daily Mirror has published photographs apparently
showing British troops abusing prisoners. 
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/3694521.stm
Published: 2004/05/08 02:27:18 GMT
© BBC MMIV

Il maltrattamento dei prigionieri irakeni in custodia alle forze usa non è
limitato a casi isolati ma fa parte di un quadro sistematico. 
Un portavoce afferma che il Comitato Internazionale della Croce Rossa
(ICRC) aveva avvertito gli usa di questi casi per piu' di un anno.
Gli abusi erano ampiamente diffusi e comprendevano "serious violations of
humanitarian law"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3694521.stm
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