Fwd: Report says 98 dead in US custody

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Report says 98 dead in US custody in Iraq, Afghanistan

 

February 22, 2006 - 12:09PM

 

 

Nearly 100 prisoners have died in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since

August 2002, the Human Rights First organisation has said on BBC television.

 

At least 98 deaths occurred, with at least 34 of them suspected or confirmed

homicides -- deliberate or reckless killing -- according to the group of US

lawyers who will publish the report.

 

Their dossier claims that 11 more deaths are deemed suspicious and that

between eight and 12 prisoners were tortured to death.

 

The number of deaths in custody discounts those due to fighting, mortar

attacks or violence between detainees. They were directly attributable to

their detention or interrogation in American custody, the BBC's Newsnight

program said.

 

The report alleged that one person was made to jump off a bridge into the

Tigris river in Iraq and another was forced inside a sleeping bag and

suffocated.

 

The report's editor Deborah Pearlstein told Newsnight: " We're extremely

comfortable with the veracity and the reliability of the facts here.

 

" These are documents based on army investigative reports, documents that

we've obtained from the government or that have come out through freedom of

information act requests in the United States. "

 

Newsnight was told by the US Pentagon: " We haven't seen the report yet.

Where we find allegations of maltreatment we take them very seriously and

prosecute. "

 

Doctor Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to Iraq, told the BBC: " There are

thousands of prisoners that have been held by the coalition during the past

more than two years.

 

" Some have died of natural causes and there have been charges of abuse. Of

course, we always investigate and determine what happened and appropriate

punishment is given if the judgment is made that illegal actions took place.

 

" If those reports are true, of course they would be terrible abuses and they

would be illegal things. Those who are responsible for them would be

investigated and they will be punished. "

 

AFP