The Human Rights Association for the Assistance of Prisoners Campaign

Hand in Hand ... Egypt without Torture

  Cairo: 6/5/2004
 

From Gwantanamo to Abu-Gharib prison

Principles of justice and equality and respecting human rights expose to rape

HRAAP claims an impartial international investigation in Abu-Gharib prison conditions

The Iraqi prisons under occupation authority 

HRAAP expresses its concerns and shock towards the information filtered through supported by photos showing regular crimes of torture against Iraqi prisoners at the hand of the foreign occupation forces that began since the end of the past year and still happens. Moreover, it expresses its shock and disgust towards the informational materials showing that helicopters chase groups of civilians and shoots them although one of them was injured.

What increases our shock that theses crimes are simultaneous with a campaign of hatred and skepticism led by the united states against audio and visual mass media, which is proved by the campaign led by Donald Ramsfield against Al Jazira and Al Arabiya channels and trials of frightening journalists working in Iraq by shooting at them like what happened with the reporter of Al Arabiya channel in Baghdad two months ago. That gives predictions to trials from the side of America to restrict the freedom of public opinion to receive information from iraq to conceal the shameful acts committed by the occupation forces there against the detainees and civilians and others.

HRAAP draws attention to that more than 10.000 civilian are detained on the hand of the occupation authorities and it is not allowed to get any information about them and their places are not subject to any kind of censorship or supervision and even their families could not practice the right to visit them or reassure about them and that exposes them to flagrant violations from the side of the occupation soldiers where the circumstances they work in helped them to be free of any moral and legal restrictions concerning the way of treatment.

HRAAP mentions again that the united states rejects not only ratifying the fundamental system of the international criminal court but also hold a violent campaign to prevent the other countries to ratify it, that proves that it realizes the size crimes against humanity as its forces working out of their borders involve in, and reveals its desire to provide an international protection for their offenders.

In this regard HRAAP regards unconfidently to what is spread concerning the American administration that will investigate internally in crimes of torture that were revealed recently in addition it regards fearfully to information that assured that the American administration will punish war criminals working within their forces in Iraq and demand immediately:

First: the American Administration

1.         to agree to open and an international investigation with the accused of committing torture crimes against Iraqi detainees and handing their file of investigations to office of the Attorney general before the International Criminal Court in Lahay, to begin an impartial investigation by itself and the outcome have to be declared to the international public opinion. In order to achieve it as soon as possible the American Administration has to begin quickly to cease the officers in charge of these crimes whether they are responsible directly or indirectly.

2.         Opening the Iraqi prisons to be supervised before the local, Arab and international organizations desiring to know the conditions of prisoners and detainees in Iraq.

3.         Publishing detailed and accurate information about the names of the Iraqi detainees and reasons of detention and their places their accusations and releasing immediately the unwanted.

4.         stopping its policy aiming at controlling information concerning conditions in Iraq in addition to stopping attacking journalists and reporters and facilitating their moves and stopping the campaigns of the skepticism of credibility of mass media

Secondly: Committees of Human Rights in United Nations and the Arab League.

HRAAP call for the committees of Human Rights in United Nations and the Arab League to form two separate delegations of fact finding to know information concerning conditions of prisons in Iraq, as they have to begin their mission immediately. In addition, it calls for the transitional government to cooperate with these delegations and present the requisite facilities and calls the United States to constructive cooperation with this delegation.

Publishing impartial international reports about conditions of prisons in Iraq will help undoubtedly to know the size of the disaster on the one hand and help to guarantee the security of detainees in these prisons without a charge. In addition, HRAAP calls for the two delegations to benefit from the experience of the Arab and international NGOs working in field of human rights.

HRAAP sees that the record of the current American administration in field of human rights has many disadvantages, from Gwantanamo to Abu-Gharib prison it acts not only out of the frame of the international law but also out of ethics and recognized principals. By that record America presents an inspiring type for the tyrant regulations in the Middle East area and proves that human right, for the American Administration, is nothing more than words do not equal to the ink used to write it                

After America have failed to justify its occupation to Iraq and killing thousands of innocent people and destroying its infrastructure because of having weapons of mass destruction and after it was proved that there are no any trace to such weapons, the United States of America reformed its justifications and endeavored to spread the idea of liberalizing the Iraqi people from the tyranny of its rulers and protecting thousands of citizens in addition to abolishing all respects of oppression and marginalization to society categories and declared that it has come to build a new Iraq ……

The United States embodies the new Iraq in many aspects its most outstanding one is what is published by news agencies and satellites such as photos and scenes of Iraqi prisoners exposed to horrible types of humiliations, frightening, torture and maltreatment at the hand of the American soldiers. It was surprisingly enough that these photos and scenes were taken in Abu-Gharib prison!

Few hours later, newspapers and satellites published also photos and scenes of torturing Iraqi prisoners also but at the hand of British soldiers.

It was expected that these photos and scenes to have an enormous response from all countries of the world whether that believed in the idea of the new Iraq or which opposed the occupation entirely. Furthermore, a number of justifications for these terrible violations have come out, some of them denied the trustworthiness of these photos and others affirmed the necessity of protecting the American soldiers was the motive to use such types of treatment to extract out confessions.

The American president declared his extreme disapproval as a quick reaction to what happened; he also assured that what happened do not represent the way of the American forces in Iraq. In addition, the American president seemed surprised regarding this news though some news has filter through tells that these photos and scenes were taken on the end of the past year, however they were concealed as a result of pressures not to publish the news. The former news assured that although this is not the way of the American administration in Iraq, this represents an American cover to crimes and horrible acts.

On another progress, the newspapers published the news of punishing the involved soldiers in these crimes and declared that the punishment was blame!

Desiring to defend the human dignity and sanctity of his body and believing in defending the prisoners and detainees rights, HRAAP considers what happened represents a massive violation to rights of these victims citizens, in addition to the Iraqi people and the whole humanity. We also assure that the massiveness of these violations increases as much as what the United States claims such as humane principles as a justification to this occupation.

HRAAP calls for trying the condemned soldiers in these horrible crimes as war criminals whether they are American or British, and claims the United States to adopt this request to prove its credibility relative to the new Iraq. We also call the United Nations to undertake its principal tasks towards these crimes or others that happen in Iraq. On our side, we will begin to form a delegation of fact-finding and sending it to Iraq to know the detainees’ conditions whether in Abu-Gharib prison or the other prisons.

 The human rights association for the assistance of prisoners