BAGHDAD, 6 May 2004 — Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the US commander of the Iraqi prison system, apologized to the Iraqi people yesterday for the abuse of detainees by US soldiers at Abu Gharib prison outside Baghdad.

“I would like to personally apologize to the people of Iraq for a small number of leaders and soldiers who have violated our policies and possibly committed criminal acts,” Miller told reporters touring the prison outside Baghdad. “I personally guarantee that this will not happen again.”

In the face of worldwide outrage over the scandal, Miller, who took up his post last month, vowed major changes at the prison including asking for a permanent presence for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

“We’ve managed a number of changes. We have rehabilitated our standards. I personally guarantee we will follow those standards,” Miller said, as revelations continued to swirl about alleged misdeeds in the US military prison system.

The general said interrogation procedures were now under review and he had already taken the step of banning the use of sleep deprivation as a tactic in questioning sessions.

Miller also said detainees could no longer be put in “stress positions” without authorization from commanders.

That was a reference to methods such as cuffing a prisoner’s hands above his head or forcing him or her to stand still for hours in hopes of breaking their will ahead of an interrogation.

He promised to improve the facilities for 3,200 detainees in tented areas in the grounds of Abu Gharib, once the most dreaded detention facility under Saddam Hussein.

Looking to counter criticism that detainees disappear from their relatives for months on end, Miller said starting May 10 detainees will be entitled to two family visits per month.

Miller announced on Tuesday that detainees would no longer wear hoods, a tactic employed to intimidate and disorient them.

He told reporters he intended to halve the prison population from its current number of 3,900 as the US-led coalition pushed to release those held for months who were no longer considered a security threat.

As Miller was speaking, some 500 Iraqis demonstrated outside the walls in the first organized show of anger at the jail since the release of the explicit pictures of abuse.

“US army, go home. Your families are waiting for you. This country is for Iraqis,” said one banner in English. “Abu Gharib, witness of American savagery,” said another.

Sheikh Abdel Salam Al-Kubaisi, a member of the Committee of Muslim Scholars behind the protest, addressed the crowds and called for better access to prisoners for human rights watchdogs.

The US military has suspended 10 prison guards, indicting six of them on criminal charges over the scandal.

Reporters toured the dark wing where guards committed their misdeeds and saw five women and 19 men peer out from their cells. With each day, new revelations emerge in the scandal.

Currently, there are five ongoing probes into the alleged mistreatment of prisoners, with one inquiry into whether or not intelligence agents and civilian contractors encouraged guards to debase the detainees.

The abuse by US troops of Iraqi prisoners has served to deepen suspicion over the United States’ real aims in Iraq, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said yesterday. He said Washington’s “repeated mistakes” had exacerbated the perilous situation in the region.

“It has been even further aggravated by the newly revealed mistreatment of Iraqis by American soldiers,” Kharrazi told a press conference in Berlin after meeting his German counterpart Joschka Fischer.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called yesterday for “full respect” of human rights in Iraq and an effective transfer of power from the US-led coalition to Iraqis on June 30. “It is necessary to guarantee the full respect of human rights in Iraq, instead of attempting to impose foreign visions and initiatives without any link to Iraqi and Arab culture,” he said in a televised speech.

Meanwhile, fresh fighting between coalition forces and fighters loyal to radical Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr killed at least 24 people.

A Canadian importer-exporter, Naji Al-Kuwaiti, kidnapped last week was freed Tuesday after being held by unidentified kidnappers and has already left the country.

Fighting flared again overnight between Sadr’s militiamen, the Mehdi Army, and coalition troops who raided the militia’s offices in two mainly Shiite towns south of Baghdad.

At least 23 Iraqis and a coalition soldier were killed in the clashes, according to hospital sources and officials.

Coalition forces seized Sadr’s main office in the southern city of Diwaniya, 180 km from Baghdad, and confiscated a cache of arms. Nine militiamen were killed in clashes there and several others injured, according to a spokesman for Sadr. Five civilians were also killed in the fighting around the office, hospital sources said.

Violence also ripped Karbala, where Polish troops took over several buildings occupied by the Mehdi Army. Ten militiamen were killed along with one coalition soldier, the coalition said.

Polish forces, which command a multinational force in Karbala, started distributing leaflets late Tuesday warning they would conduct nightly patrols to disarm Sadr’s followers.

Fresh clashes broke out in Najaf, where Sadr has dug in with thousands of armed followers, but there were no reports of casualties.