United States overseer Paul Bremer’s decision to free about 500 Iraqi prisoners shines the spotlight on the US-run penal system in Iraq, where human rights groups and family members complain people just vanish.
Almost every day, relatives line the wall outside Abu Gharib, a penitentiary notorious under Saddam Hussein, in hopes of locating loved ones.
Bremer’s announcement that hundreds will be released in the coming weeks came as the coalition looks to move beyond the insurgency that has dogged US forces since the fall of Saddam last April.
”It is time for reconciliation,” Bremer told reporters.
Those being freed are ”associated” with insurgents, but had not planned, financed or pulled the trigger in an attack, a coalition spokesperson said.
Their arrests are the legacy of mass sweeps by the US army for suspected rebels and their associates who are gleaned for information on the deadly attacks that have claimed 216 US soldiers since May 1, when US President George Bush announced an end to major hostilities.
The nine-month insurgency and the anarchy of post-war Iraq have resulted in a teeming prison system, with the coalition listing 9 300 security detainees and hundreds more common criminals.
In the early days of June and July, the coalition was criticised by rights groups for its failure to provide to the general public lists of Iraqis detained or to allow visitation for families.
But by August, the coalition had rehabilitated prison facilities, started to supply lists of prisoners at police stations and other public locations where Iraqis could check to see if their relatives were in jail.
The coalition also started to implement family visits, which are guaranteed under the Geneva Convention.
Despite the strides, rights groups and relatives complain much more needs to be done.
They say not everyone is accounted for, that there is no clear insight into the judicial procedure for security detainees and that family visitations do not happen frequently enough.
Last month, 32-year-old Omar Ahmad Radif said his father and brother were transferred in November to Abu Gharib from Umm Qasr prison in the far south.
While he was able to visit them at Umm Qasr six times, his next scheduled visit is not until April.
Bremer said on Wednesday the coalition is looking at ways to improve the system for family visits.
Meanwhile, the US-based Human Rights Watch worries many people are being detained without a proper review of their case.
Speaking about common-law criminals, Human Rights Watch representative Hania Mufti said: ”Many Iraqis in the past months have been held in situations that violate domestic Iraqi legislation, which is supposed to be implemented now.
”They’ve been held longer than allowed by the law before they are referred to court. They’ve been very frequently denied access to family and to lawyers. And it takes a long time for them to actually get to court.”
Turning to security detainees, those suspected of attacks on the coalition, Mufti said the coalition has a right to hold them, but she worried whether their cases are being handled in a fair and equitable manner.
”I don’t think the question is one of holding too many detainees. It is more trying to get the necessary procedure to guarantee the rights of detainees from the moment of arrest to the moment of release or the moment of the referral to court and conviction. It’s there we’ve had the most serious concerns,” she said.
Mufti noted the lists of detainees available to Iraqis are far from complete and do not cover all those in prison.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which visits Iraqi prisoners, said it is filling the gap by sending letters from detainees to their families.
Commenting on the release of the 506 prisoners expected in the coming weeks, ICRC spokesperson Nada Doumani said: ”We hope judicial procedures will go ahead with all detainees.” — Sapa-AFP
US to release Iraqi prisoners