World

Sunnis: Probe Iraq Secret Jails

November 16, 2005 / 1:14 PM EST / CBS/AP

Iraq's main Sunni Arab political party on Wednesday demanded an international investigation into allegations that security forces illegally detained and tortured suspected insurgents at secret jails in Baghdad.

The political demands follow an acknowledgement by Iraq's prime minister Tuesday that 173 Iraqi detainees — malnourished and showing signs of torture — were found at an Interior Ministry detention center seized by U.S. forces in the heart of the capital. Sunnis have long complained of such abuse by the Shiite-controlled ministry.

Omar Heikal of the Iraqi Islamic Party said it was now clear that majority Shiites in the U.S.-backed government were trying to suppress minority Sunnis ahead of the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.

"Our information indicates that this is not the only place where torture is taking place," he said, reading an official party statement. The party "calls on the United Nations, the Arab League and humanitarian bodies to denounce these clear human rights violations, and we demand a fair, international probe so that all those who are involved in such practices will get their just punishment."

The unprecedented U.S. raid on an Iraqi detention facility filled with malnourished torture victims appears aimed in part at scoring points among Sunni Arabs, whose participation in next month's parliamentary election is key to an American exit Iraq.

In related developments:

In continuing insurgent violence near Baghdad, three U.S. Army soldiers were killed Tuesday in a roadside bombing, the U.S. command said. A U.S. Marine was also killed Tuesday when a car bomb exploded near Karmah, 50 miles west of Baghdad, another statement said.

Near the Syrian border Tuesday, U.S. and Iraqi forces swept through most of an insurgent stronghold encountering pockets of fierce resistance, destroying five unexploded car bombs and killing at least 30 militants, the U.S. command reported. The U.S.-Iraqi attack on Obeidi was the latest stage of an offensive to clear al Qaeda-led insurgents from towns and cities in the Euphrates River valley.

Officials from the European Union on Wednesday ruled out sending an observer mission to Iraq for the elections because it is too dangerous.

Also Tuesday, a Pentagon spokesman acknowledged that U.S. troops used white phosphorous, which is not banned, but is covered by Protocol III of the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons, as a weapon against insurgent strongholds in the battle of Fallujah a year ago. Lt. Col. Barry Venable denied an Italian TV news report that the spontaneously flammable material was used against civilians.

Wednesday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair ruled out sending more of his country's troops to Iraq to seal the porous border with Iran. His government has recently accused Iran's Revolutionary Guard of giving Iraqi insurgents bomb-making technology, and has said that weapons and fighters are smuggled across the poorly protected border. Britain has about 8,500 troops in Iraq.

Germany has charged three Iraqis with plotting to kill former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi during a state visit to Germany last year, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Al Qaeda has smuggled explosives, weapons and millions of dollars in cash into Afghanistan for a resurgent terror campaign, the country's defense minister warned Wednesday as a suicide attack on a U.S. military convoy killed three civilians.

War protester Cindy Sheehan demanded a trial for demonstrating without a permit outside the White House. Sheehan also plans to revive her protest near President Bush's Texas ranch during Thanksgiving week, despite new county ordinances banning roadside camping.

A U.N. rights expert called on the Iraqi government Wednesday to launch an independent investigation into the recent assassination of two lawyers involved in the trial of Saddam Hussein. The victims, Saadoun al-Janabi and Adel al-Zubeidi, represented defendants at the Iraqi Supreme Criminal Tribunal charged with crimes against humanity.

Sunni Arab politicians have complained for months about arbitrary arrests, torture and assassinations of Sunnis, allegedly at the hands of special commandoes of the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry, who are at the forefront of the battle against the largely Sunni insurgents.

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari confirmed Tuesday that more than 170 prisoners were found malnourished and possibly tortured by government security forces.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said U.S. and Iraqi forces went into the facility in Baghdad suspecting that individuals there might not have been appropriately handled or managed, and "they found things that concerned them."

Tariq al-Hashimi, the secretary-general of the Iraqi Islamic Party, held up photos of the bodies of people who appear to have been subjected to torture and said: "This is what your Sunni brothers are being subjected too."

He said his group had sent complaints in the past the government, but without response.

"We told them that if you don't have information, then where are our brothers who were kidnapped by people wearing your uniforms, using your telecommunication equipment and driving your cars," he said.

He said that if the investigation proves that the interior minister was involved, then he should resign.

He also said the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, should "condemn these acts and stop covering" for the Shiite minister.

Saad Farhan, a 40 year-old trader in Ramadi, said his brother and cousin were detained by Interior Ministry forces and that some detainees were taken to building raided by U.S. forces.

"Some government officials want to keep the Sunnis away from the next elections by terrorizing us," he said. "We believe that Iran's agents are behind it because normal and genuine Iraqis never do this."

Many Sunnis suspect Shiites of being allies of Iran.

The U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq issued a report Monday depicting a bleak picture of the Iraqi legal system.

"Massive security operations by the Iraqi police and Special Forces continue to disregard instructions announced in August 2005 by the Ministry of the Interior to safeguard individual guarantees during search and detention operations," the report said.