LONDON, 20 August 2004 — Doctors working for the US military in Iraq collaborated with interrogators in the abuse of detainees at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison, profoundly breaching medical ethics and human rights, according to a new analysis.
In a scathing indictment of the behavior of military doctors, nurses and other medics, US bioethicist Steven Miles called for a reform of military medicine and an official investigation into the role played by physicians and other medical staff in the torture scandal.
The article was published in The Lancet medical journal. “The various incidents and allegations in the article come from sources primarily documented by the military itself while investigating the extent of abuses,” said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a US Army spokesman for detainee operations in Iraq. “Many of these cases remain under investigation and charges will be brought against any individual where there is evidence of abuse,” Johnson said.
Photographs of prisoners being abused and humiliated by US troops in Iraq have sparked worldwide condemnation. Although the conduct of soldiers has been scrutinized, the role of medical staff in the scandal has received relatively little attention. Miles, from the University of Minnesota, gathered evidence from US congressional hearings, sworn statements of detainees and soldiers, medical journal accounts and press reports to build a picture of physician complicity, and in some cases, active participation by medical personnel in abuse at the Baghdad prison, as well as in Afghanistan and at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba.
He cites evidence that doctors or medics under physician command falsified death certificates to cover up murders, hid evidence of beatings and revived a prisoner so he could be further tortured. No reports of abuses were initiated by medical personnel until the official investigation into Abu Ghraib began, he found.
In an editorial comment, The Lancet condemned the behavior of the doctors, saying that despite dual loyalties, they are doctors first and soldiers second.
“Health care workers should now break their silence,” the journal said. “Those who were involved or witnessed ill-treatment need to give a full and accurate account of events at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Those who are still in positions where dual commitments prevent them from putting the rights of their patients above other interests should protest loudly and refuse cooperation with authorities.”
