12.1 |
Security Sector Reform
On 25
January 2005, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report which
alleged that
the abuse
of detainees by Iraqi police and intelligence forces had become
“routine and
commonplace”.615
The report
was based on interviews with 90 detainees in Iraq
between
July and
October 2004 and described “serious and widespread human rights
violations”. It
alleged
“the systematic use of arbitrary arrest, prolonged pre‑trial
detention without judicial
review,
torture and ill‑treatment of detainees, denial of access by
families and lawyers to
detainees,
improper treatment of detained children, and abysmal conditions in
pre‑trial
detention
facilities”.
The report
made a number of recommendations to MNF governments, including
the
immediate
prioritisation of an investigation into allegations of torture or
ill‑treatment of
detainees
by the IPS, establishing new mechanisms to investigate allegations
of abuse
and an
increase in the number of advisers deployed in detention
facilities.
The press
release issued by HRW on the same day stated:
“International
police advisers, primarily US citizens funded through the United
States
government,
have turned a blind eye to these rampant abuses.”616
A note
highlighting the publication of the report was sent from a junior
official in IPU
to the
Private Secretary of Mr Bill Rammell, FCO Parliamentary
Under‑Secretary, on
24 January.617
It stated
that the report had been expected for “some time” and
that
“Ministers
were aware it was pending”. The junior official wrote:
“A
preliminary reading would suggest that it is well‑researched,
although it appears
to be
biased towards conditions in central Iraq with relatively limited
coverage of
southern
Iraq where the UK has a more direct influence on
conditions.”
The junior
official outlined the support provided to the Iraqi police and
prison services, and
the
procedures in place to ensure compliance with international law.
The official wrote:
“We will
have to review our assistance in the light of this
report.”
The Inquiry
has seen no reporting of this review in contemporaneous
documents.
A telegram
from Baghdad on 6 February stated that Mr Andrew Hood, Legal
Adviser,
had met
Mr Bakhtiar Amin, Iraqi Minister of Human Rights, on 3
February to establish
Mr Amin’s
response to the HRW report.618
Mr Amin
was “critical of HRW for issuing
a report
without bothering to check with him what corrective action was in
hand”. He
explained
his Ministry’s team of prison inspectors had already raised the
concerns
highlighted
in the report to the MOI and those responsible for individual
facilities. He did,
however,
recognise that work was ad hoc and needed to be better
established.
615
Report
Human Rights Watch, 25 January 2005, ‘The New Iraq? Torture and
Ill‑Treatment of Detainees
in Iraqi
Custody’.
616
Press
Release Human Rights Watch, 25 January 2005, ‘Iraq: Torture
continues at hands of new
government’.
617
Minute IPU
[junior official] to PS/PUS [FCO], 24 January 2005, ‘Human Rights
Watch Report Alleging
Abuse by
Iraqi Police’.
618
Telegram 90
Baghdad to FCO, 6 February 2005, ‘Iraq: Call on Minister of Human
Rights’.
203