Abu Ghraib ( Arabic. أبو غريب ) is a prison in the Iraqi city of the same name, located 32 km west of Baghdad . Abu Ghraib prison, notorious during the time of the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, was turned by the Americans after the invasion of Iraq into a detention facility for Iraqis accused of committing crimes against the forces of the western coalition.
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During the reign of Saddam Hussein
During the reign of Saddam Hussein , the Abu Ghraib prison was subordinate to the Amn al-Amm General Security Authority. Only in 1984, 4,000 prisoners were executed in prison. The head of the organization of special security Saddam Kamel often personally participated in the torture and executions of political prisoners. In the Western media, the prison was often referred to as the "Saddam Torture Center."
The prison block, designed to contain political prisoners, was divided into “open” and “closed” wings. Only Shiites were placed in the closed wing. They were not allowed any meetings and contacts with the outside world.
During the Gulf War in Abu Ghraib, American prisoners of war were kept.
According to the UN Special Rapporteur on Iraq, Max van der Stoel , at the end of 1997, in the Abu Ghraib prison, in the framework of the “campaign to cleanse prisons”, mass executions of political prisoners sentenced to long prison terms were held. According to him, during this campaign, more than 1,500 people were executed in Abu Ghraib and Radvania. [one]
Managed by coalition forces
Having passed under the control of the coalition forces, Abu Ghraib was again used for its intended purpose, having received the name Baghdad Central Correctional Facility ( Eng. Baghdad Central Confinement Facility or Baghdad Central Correctional Facility).
Until August 2006 , Abu Ghraib was used jointly by coalition forces and the Iraqi government. The prison block, which was under the complete control of the Iraqi government, was called “The Hard Site”. The convicted criminals served their sentences there. The rest of the prison was under the control of the United States Armed Forces , and was used as an advanced operational base and correctional facility. A block built in 2004 and known as “Camp Redemption” was used for pre-trial detention.
Transition to Iraqi government
On March 9, 2006 , the US command decided to close the Abu Ghraib prison. In August 2006 , all prisoners were transferred from Abu Ghraib to other prisons in Iraq, and on September 2, the prison came under the control of the Iraqi government.
In 2013, the rebels attacked the prison and released several hundred prisoners from it. In April 2014, the Ministry of Justice of Iraq announced the closure of the prison for fear that it would be captured by rebels. Prisoners were transferred to prisons in safer places. [2]
Abu Ghraib prison torture
At the end of April 2004 , a story about torture and harassment of prisoners of Abu Ghraib prison by a group of American soldiers was shown on CBS channel on program 60 Minutes II . The plot showed photographs that were published a few days later in the magazine The New Yorker . This was the biggest scandal around the presence of Americans in Iraq.
In early May 2004 , the leadership of the United States Armed Forces acknowledged that some of the torture methods did not comply with the Third Geneva Conventional Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War and announced their readiness to apologize publicly. [3]
According to the testimony of a number of prisoners, the American soldiers raped them, rode them, forced them to catch food from the prison toilets. In particular, the prisoners said: “They made us walk on all fours, like dogs, and yelp. We had to bark like dogs, and if you didn't bark, then you were slapped in the face without any pity. After that, they threw us in the cells, took away the mattresses, poured water on the floor and made us sleep in this slush without removing the hoods from the head. And all this was constantly photographed, ”“ One American said that he would rape me. He painted a woman on my back and forced me to stand in a shameful position, to hold my own scrotum in my hands. ” [four]
Twelve US military personnel were convicted on charges related to the incidents at Abu Ghraib prison. They received various terms of imprisonment.
The investigation did not establish a fault in the incident of high-ranking Pentagon employees. [five]
Photos of torture on US military bases in Afghanistan and Iraq were banned for publication by the US Government, on the basis of an amendment to the Freedom of Information Act, which prohibits publication if it could endanger someone’s life or security (US soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq ). The American Civil Liberties Union demanded publication through court, as these photos prove, according to the Union, that prisoners were tortured not only in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
In 2006, Judge Alvin Hellerstein (Alvin Hellerstein) ordered the US Government to make public photographs. In 2008, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit confirmed the legality of the judge’s decision [6] .
Notes
- ↑ Human Rights Watch World Report 1999 - Iraq
- Otor Notorious Abu Ghraib
- США US Command is ready to apologize publicly. RIA Novosti , 04/30/2004
- ↑ The testimony of the prisoners of "Abu Ghraib": US troops raped teenagers // NEWSru.com , May 21, 2004
- ↑ The three generals and the colonel who were involved in the Abu Ghraib case are justified by the command of the Voice of America , April 23, 2005
- ↑ US government obliged to publish photos of torture in US prisons
Literature
- Zimbardo F. The Lucifer Effect. Why good people turn into villains / Per. from English A. Stativka. - M .: Alpina non-fiction , 2013. - 740 p. - ISBN 978-5-91671-106-6 .
See also
- Camp Cropper , located west of Baghdad .
- Camp Bucca , located near Umm Qasr .
- ICRC position on cases of ill-treatment of detainees in Iraq by the US and British military