US to release 506 Iraqis
2004-01-07 12:48
Baghdad - Iraq's US-led administration will release 506 prisoners from detention camps, while simultaneously offering bounties for 30 more Iraqis wanted in the anti-American insurgency, officials said on Tuesday.
It's meant to trigger further co-operation between Iraqis and their occupiers, said three senior officials - two military and one civilian - who gave reporters a background briefing.
Most to be released are suspected low-level "associates" of insurgents, and none have been directly involved in attacks, they said.
"Let me reassure you that this is not a programme for those with bloodstained hands," said a statement from US administrator Paul Bremer.
The officials said they would become "increasingly aggressive with the die-hards" but use "a carrot approach to those who are sitting on the fence".
The first release is to take place on Thursday, when about 100 prisoners will be freed from the sprawling, Saddam-era Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad. Further releases will take place in coming weeks from detention camps across Iraq, the officials said.
The 506 prisoners to be freed represent about 4% percent of the 12 800 prisoners in US custody.
None of those slated for release are believed to have taken part in attacks on US or other soldiers in Iraq, or on Iraqi civilian targets. One military official described the typical prisoner awaiting release as a person swept up in a raid that also captured "more dangerous persons" and perhaps weapons. Another official suggested the detainees may have acted out of fear of Saddam's possible return.
The release of Iraqis held indefinitely and without charge has been a top demand of the country's community and tribal leaders, as well as human rights advocates.
"All they do is put a bag on their heads, bind their hands behind them with plastic handcuffs and take them away. Families don't know where they go," Malek Dohan al-Hassan, head of the Lawyers Syndicate in Baghdad, said last month. "They violate human rights up to their ears."
At the same time, the officials said the US military will intensify its hunt for hard-line guerrillas, offering bounties for information leading to the capture or killing of 30 Iraqis accused in the insurgency.
The reward announcement broadens the practice of offering bounties for wanted fugitives. Of the original 55 most wanted Iraqis whose pictures appeared on a deck of cards, 13 remain at large. Twelve of those command $1m bounties. The US military has also put up a $10m bounty for Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, vice chairman of Saddam's revolutionary council and, the most wanted man in the country.
The officials described the latest group of fugitives as second- and third-tier insurgent leaders, some of whom are on the original "black list." Others came to US attention more recently. The pictures and names of all 30 will be made public when the list is released, the officials said.
- AP