Pictures of American abuse from Abu Ghraib that shocked the world will never be repeated and conditions inside the jail are improving, Iraq’s interim human rights minister said on Monday.
Bakhtiar Amin said his ministry was conducting weekly visits to the prison on the outskirts of Baghdad after reaching agreement with the U.S. general in charge of the jail.
“Abu Ghraib is now better than it used to be,” Amin told a news conference. “We were promised...that those pictures we saw will not be seen again. We are observing Abu Ghraib now and nothing like this is happening.”
The pictures taken at Abu Ghraib late last year, and made public in April, embarrassed the U.S. government.
Some showed American soldiers piling naked Iraqis into a pyramid and threatening them with dogs. In one, a hooded prisoner has electrical wires attached to his body.
The United States formally handed sovereignty back to Iraq on June 28 but still controls Abu Ghraib and other detention centers where anti-American insurgents or senior members of Saddam Hussein’s regime are being held.
Sadoun Sultan, a ministry official who heads the weekly visit to Abu Ghraib, said the first time they went to the facility on May 27, conditions were “not perfect.”
“What we saw was not great and not perfect but then after a second, third and fourth visit things have improved. What we saw on TV will not happen again.
“We cannot be at every interrogation but we can meet the prisoners alone, so if there are violations then we will certainly know about them,” Sultan said.
Food and showers
Amin said prisoners were now getting better food and decent showers, while family visits were being made easier.
“Now, the prisoners and the Americans and Iraqis working there eat the same food. Criminal prisoners are separated from security prisoners and we are trying to open a prison library.”
Security prisoners are those suspected of actual or potential involvement in violence against U.S.-led forces or Iraqi targets. They include at least 90 foreign fighters.
The U.S government insists foreigners are playing a key role in the insurgency in Iraq.
Amin said the largest number of foreign captives were from Syria, while others were from Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Turkey, Lebanon and Sudan.
He said 77 were being held in a jail in the southern port of Um Qasr and a dozen in Abu Ghraib.
“They are being detained under various charges such as planning terrorist attacks and photographing military posts. Some of them confessed that they belonged to al-Qaeda,” he said.
Amin said lawyers from his ministry would also observe Saddam’s trial to ensure it meets international standards.
The former Iraqi leader, who was driven from power by U.S.-led forces in April 2003, appeared before an Iraqi judge on July 1 to hear charges that may lead to a formal indictment for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
