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Blair 'appalled' at PoW photos
30/04/2004 13:07 - (SA)
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| A photo from TV shows hooded prisoner standing on a small box, with wires connected to his hands. Photo: Sky News |
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London - British Prime Minister Tony Blair is appalled at photographs apparently showing US soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners in a Baghdad jail, his official spokesperson said on Friday.
"The US army spokesman has said this morning that he is appalled, that those responsible have let their fellow soldiers down, and those are views that we would associate the UK government with," the spokesperson told reporters at Downing Street.
Asked if Blair was similarly appalled, he replied: "The government view is the same as that of the US army."
He added that the photographs, some of which depicted US troops posing with naked Iraqi prisoners in a variety of demeaning, sexual poses, were in "direct contravention of all policy under which the coalition operates".
The pictures were aired on US television, with many subsequently printed on Friday in newspapers in Britain, Washington's closest ally in the war to remove Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and in the subsequent occupation of the country.
Absolutely terrible
Earlier Friday, Blair's human rights envoy to Iraq pronounced herself "shocked" at the pictures.
"I think they are absolutely terrible. I am shocked," Ann Clwyd, a lawmaker from Blair's Labour Party who for many years campaigned over human rights under Saddam and backed the US-led war to remove him, told BBC radio.
However she said there was no comparison with how prisoners were treated under the former Iraqi regime.
"A small number of cases, horrible though they are - you cannot compare that with the tens of thousands of people Saddam Hussein was responsible for executing and torturing," she said.
On Thursday a senior US military officer in Baghdad said that the general in charge of the US-run prison system in Iraq had been suspended after allegations of abuse meted out to detainees earlier this year.
Brigadier General Janis Karpinski was suspended in late January after six US soldiers were indicted for mistreating prisoners at the Abu Gharib prison, the officer said.
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