|
New abuse pics, more charges
20/05/2004 09:25 - (SA)
|
|
|
 |
|
| Sabrina Harman of the 372nd Military Police Company poses with the body of a dead Iraqi man packed in ice. (AP/ABC News) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Washington - More soldiers than the seven already facing courts-martial could be brought up on charges over abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, a top US general said on Wednesday, acknowledging widespread problems at the jail.
Although new allegations fanned the flames of international outrage, the two generals in charge of the US-led occupation of Iraq told a congressional panel that there was no "pattern" of abuse of prisoners.
General John Abizaid, head of US Central Command, and Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of US forces in Iraq, both took responsibility for the abuses when they appeared before the Senate Armed Forces Committee.
"We have already initiated courts-martial in seven cases, and there may very well be more prosecutions," Sanchez said.
"We may find that the evidence produced in these investigations... leads to more courts-martial."
He added that the army may go back to some of the cases that have already been handled.
The hearing came just after a military judge in Baghdad sentenced Jeremy Sivits to a maximum one-year jail term for his role in the humiliation of inmates at Abu Ghraib.
Demoted and discharged
Sivits, 24, was the first of the seven to face a hearing. He admitted conspiracy to maltreat detainees, maltreatment of detainees and dereliction of duty. Sivits was also demoted from specialist to private and given a bad conduct discharge.
Senator John Warner, the Republican chairman of the committee, said more images of abuse had been found. Three CDs of digital photographs and video clips of abuse have already been uncovered. Warner said the new images were on a fourth disc.
"We have suffered a setback'
"We have suffered a setback," Abizaid told the panel. "I accept responsibility for that setback."
"From evidence already gathered, we believe that systemic problems existed at the prison that may have contributed to events there," Abizaid went on.
"We will follow the trail of evidence wherever it leads, we will continue to correct systemic problems. We will hold people accountable."
Sanchez also assured lawmakers that measures had been taken to ensure no repeat of abuse of naked prisoners.
"While horrified at the abusive behaviour that took place, I believe that I've taken the proper steps to ensure that such behaviour is not repeated," Sanchez said.
Despite the assurances, lawmakers again expressed their revulsion over the scandal during the four-hour long Senate hearing.
Massachusetts Democrat Ted Kennedy called the debacle "a catastrophic failure of leadership." Another perennial Democratic critic, Robert Byrd, told the generals: "I do not know if that damage can ever be fully repaired."
Republicans have been no less harsh.
Senator Lindsay Graham said of the operations at Abu Ghraib: "I have never seen a more dysfunctional command relationship."
- AFP
|
