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Inmates' tales of torture
21/05/2004 20:55 - (SA)
Washington - Extracts from sworn testimony by victims of abuse by US military guards at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, as published Friday by the Washington Post:
Ameen Al-Sheikh, detainee No 151362, January 16: "The guard put a pistol to my head. He said, "I wish I can kill you right now.' I spend the night at this place and next morning they took me to the hard site. They received me there with screaming, shoving, pushing and pulling.
They forced me to walk from the main gate to my cell. Otherwise they would beat my broken leg. I was in very bad shape. When I went to the cell they took my crutches and I didn't see it since. Inside the cell, they asked me to strip naked, they didnt give me blanket or clothes or anything.
Every hour or two, soldiers came, threatening me they were going to kill me and torture me and Im going to be in prison forever and they might transfer me to Guantanamo Bay... They forced me to eat pork and they put liquor in my mouth.
... One of them (guards) told me he would rape me. He drew a picture of a woman to my back and makes me stand in shameful position holding my buttocks... They ordered me to curse Islam and because they started to hit my broken leg, I cursed my religion. They ordered me to thank Jesus that I am alive."
Nori Al-Yasseri, detainee No 7787, January 17: "One day in Ramadan, I don't know the exact date, we were involved in a fight in compound 2 so they transferred us to the hard site. As soon as we arrived they put sandbags over our heads and they kept beating us and called us bad names. After they removed the sandbags they stripped us naked as a newborn baby. Then they ordered us to hold our penises and stroke it ... They started to take photographs as if it was a porn movie. And they treated us like animals not as humans. ... No one showed us mercy. Nothing but cursing and beating."
Shalan Alsharoni, detainee No 150422, January 17: "One of those days the guards tortured the prisoners. Those guards are Granger, Davis and another man.
First they tortured the man whose name is Amjid Iraqi. They stripped him of his clothes and beat him until he passed out and they cursed him and when they took off his (hood) I saw blood running from his head.
They took him to solitary confinement and they were beating him every night. ... The evening shift was sad for prisoners. They brought three prisoners handcuffed to each other and they pushed the first one on top of the others to look like they are gay and when they refused, Graner beat them up until they put them on top of each other and they took pictures of them...
And after that they beat up an Iraqi whose name is Asaad ... When they tortured him they took gloves and they beat his dick and testicles with the gloves and they handcuffed him to the cell door for half a day without food or water."
- AFP
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