Howard denies abuse 'cover up'
2004-05-27 10:04
Sydney - Australian Prime Minister John Howard rejected a report on Thursday suggesting his government knew about allegations of prisoner abuse in Iraq last October, months earlier than acknowledged by officials.
The Sydney Morning Herald said an Australian officer stationed at US military headquarters in Iraq saw Red Cross reports in October about alleged mistreatment by US guards and passed the information to his superiors.
But Howard insisted on Thursday he only learned of the prisoner abuse in April, when photos surfaced showing US soldiers humiliating and mistreating inmates at Abu Ghraib.
He branded suggestions in the Herald report that his government had tried to "cover up" the abuse as "quite absurd" and "nonsensical".
Major George O'Kane, a legal officer in the Australian Defence Force (ADF), worked at US military headquarters in Baghdad from September to February and was involved in drafting a response to the Red Cross concerns, the daily said.
O'Kane was notably in Baghdad when photographs of prisoner abuse at the city's Abu Ghraib jail first circulated at the US headquarters, it said.
The Australian officer knew of the photographs but did not see them, unidentified sources told the newspaper.
No specifics in report
The report appeared to contradict repeated statements by Australian officials, including Defence Minister Robert Hill and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, that they first heard of the alleged Baghdad prisoner abuse in January.
The issue is a delicate one for Howard's conservative government, which finds itself having to defend an unpopular deployment of Australian troops in Iraq just as it struggles in opinion polls ahead of elections later this year.
Howard said the October Red Cross report mentioned in the newspaper referred only in a general way to concerns about prisoner treatment and conditions in Iraq and did not contain specifics about the abuse at Abu Ghraib.
"I am in fact advised that Major O'Kane witnessed no interrogations or mistreatment of detainees and has previously reported to the defence department that he believes the detainees had been treated with humanity and in accordance with the Geneva Convention" Howard said in parliament.
When asked why he only learned of the abuse allegations in April when both Downer and Hill say they knew of the problem in January, Howard snapped that the important issue was that no Australian troops were involved.
An opinion poll published earlier this week showed 63 percent of voters now feel the Iraq war, and Howard's decision to commit Australian troops to the conflict, were unjustified.