Balkinization: Allegations of Child Abuse at Abu Ghraib Prison

Allegations of Child Abuse at Abu Ghraib Prison

Der Speigel reports (Translated from German).

"Between January and May of this year we've registered 107 children, during 19 visits in 6 different detention locations" the representative of the International Red Cross, Florian Westphal, told the TV station SWR's Magazine "Report Mainz". He noted that these were places of detention controlled by coalition troops. According to Westphal the number of children held captive could be even higher.

The TV Magazine also reported of evidence and eye witness reports according to which U.S. soldiers also abused children and youthful detainees. Samuel Provance, a staff sergeant stationed in the now infamous Abu Ghraib prison said that interrogating officers had pressured a 15 or 16 year old girl. Military police had only intervened when the girl was already half undressed. On another occasion, a 16 year old was soaked with water, driven through the cold, and then smeared with mud.
UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, confirmed the detention of Iraqi children by foreign military according to "Report" which cited an interim memorandum by the organization, The as yet unreleased report, which is dated June 2004, is quoted as follows: "Children who were detained in the cities of Kerbala and Basra because of alleged activities against the occupying forces were reportedly routinely sent to a detention camp at Umm Kasr. The classification of these children as detainees is worrisome because it includes unspecified length of detention without contact to their families pending further proceedings or legal actions".
The German section of the human rights organization Amnesty International is demanding a clarification of the allegations and a response from the US government.

Sadly No has more. No More Mr. Nice Blog links to this story from Norway.

This story has not yet hit the American media. An important question is whether there was a policy of abusing children in order to put pressure on their parents to confess.

Posted 3:30 PM by JB [link]

Comments:

Actually there have already been reports of at least one child being mistreated to get his dad to talk. See link below. Unfortunately, the yahoo news link, where I first read this story, doesn't work anymore.
link

# posted by

Neeraj Engineer : 4:08 PM

Oh! But yeah, we don't know if this was part of the torture policy.

# posted by

Neeraj Engineer : 4:15 PM

In the comments thread in the Sadly, No! post, a reader notes that Knight-Ridder broke the story back in May and that the original article is currently available online at

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0520-07.htm.

# posted by

C.P. Martini : 8:32 PM

# posted by

Anonymous : 5:06 AM

3year old girl & 9-month-old baby.
Last week a 3 year old girl in South Africa was beaten and raped .You may have already heard that there's a myth in South Africa that having sex with a virgin will cure AIDS. The younger the virgin, the more potent the cure. This has led to an epidemic of rapes by infected males, with the correspondent infection of innocent kids. Many have died in these cruel rapes.

Recently in Cape Town , a 9-month-old baby was raped by 6 men.

Please think about that for a moment. The child abuse situation is now reaching catastrophic proportions and if we don't do something, then who will?

Kindly add your name to the bottom of the list and please pass this on to as many people as you know.

This is just 1 of the million cases of child abuse, so please pledge your support and help keep CPU (CHILD PROTECTION UNIT) open. Please give your support to the petition and ensure that it goes to as many people as possible. Help fight against child abuse.

Please support the petition at: Child Abuse

# posted by

pankss123 : 9:03 AM