BAGHDAD, 18 November 2005 — Iraq’s interior minister dismissed reports of prisoner abuse at a secret Baghdad bunker yesterday, prompting a stern response from the US Embassy in an affair that threatens to aggravate sectarian tensions.
Less than two hours after Interior Minister Bayan Baker Solagh tried to justify his ministry’s actions in the case of 170 men found half starving and beaten in a ministry compound, the US Embassy denounced such abuses.
“We do not tolerate any abuse of detainees in Iraq. Even one case is too much, anywhere,” embassy spokesman Jim Bullock said at an unscheduled appearance in Baghdad. “We have made clear to the Iraqi government that there must not be militia or sectarian control or direction of Iraqi security forces, facilities or ministries. The Iraqi government must take measures to ensure this kind of thing does not happen again.”
His statement appeared to be a direct response to Solagh, who earlier not only played down the affair, but also contradicted Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, who was one of the first to acknowledge that abuses had taken place at the prison.
Jaafari has ordered an investigation, and the United Nations has also called for a thorough examination of the affair.
The bunker was discovered by US forces during a raid on Sunday. Inside they found 173 men and teenage boys, many of them malnourished, beaten and showing signs of torture.
“The talk about this has been inaccurate,” a defiant Solagh told a packed news conference. His voice rose as he dismissed angrily a series of accusations, including that he had condoned torture by a feared Shiite militia group linked to his ministry. He said only a handful of prisoners appeared to have been beaten. “There were only five, or at most seven, who showed signs of having been beaten,” he said. “I don’t accept for any officer to even slap a prisoner.”
The minister suggested some making the torture allegations were supporting the insurgency or had a personal score to settle and were using the US Embassy to exert pressure on him.
