Zwarte Schaap
29-05-04, 17:06
IRAQI WOMEN RAPED AT ABU GHRAIB: REPORTS
29.5.2004. 12:47:32
Reports have emerged that Iraqi women held at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison were raped by both US and Iraqi jailers, according to human rights groups, following the reports of abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US troops there.
However coalition spokesman Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt said the prisons department is unaware of any such reports at Abu Ghraib, and the reports have not been confirmed.
The International Occupation Watch Centre, an NGO that gathers information on human rights abuses under coalition rule, said one former detainee has told of the alleged rape of her cellmate.
"She claimed she had been raped 17 times in one day by Iraqi police in the presence of American soldiers," said Iman Khamas, head of the IOWC, adding the victim had allegedly been rendered unconscious for 58 hours.
And another group, the Iraq-based Union of Detainees and Prisoners, has told of a mother of four, arrested in December, who killed herself after being raped by US guards in front of her husband at Abu Ghraib.
According to the group's head Daham al-Mohammed, the woman's sister who helped in the suicide told of how the woman had been taken into a cell where she saw her husband attached to bars. A US soldier reportedly held her by the hair to force her to look at her husband while he stripped her, then raped her.
A former male prisoner, Amer Abu Durayid, 30, who was released on May 13, reported seeing women taken into a room. "They had to pass in front of our tent and cried out, 'Find a way to kill us'," he said.
Human rights groups say in a conservative society like Iraq, women are made to feel that rape dishonours the whole family and would prefer to die.
Mr Khamas, Mr Mohammed and Baghdad University professor Hoda Nuaimi all separately said three young rural women from the Sunni Muslim region of Al-Anbar had been killed by their families after leaving Abu Ghraib pregnant.
Most of the women arrested by coalition forces are accused of holding senior positions in Saddam Hussein's Baath party or assisting the insurgency against the occupation forces.
The International Committee of the Red Cross says about 30 women were housed in the prison in October. According to prison management, there were five at the beginning of May.
Bron: http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=86121®ion=6
29.5.2004. 12:47:32
Reports have emerged that Iraqi women held at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison were raped by both US and Iraqi jailers, according to human rights groups, following the reports of abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US troops there.
However coalition spokesman Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt said the prisons department is unaware of any such reports at Abu Ghraib, and the reports have not been confirmed.
The International Occupation Watch Centre, an NGO that gathers information on human rights abuses under coalition rule, said one former detainee has told of the alleged rape of her cellmate.
"She claimed she had been raped 17 times in one day by Iraqi police in the presence of American soldiers," said Iman Khamas, head of the IOWC, adding the victim had allegedly been rendered unconscious for 58 hours.
And another group, the Iraq-based Union of Detainees and Prisoners, has told of a mother of four, arrested in December, who killed herself after being raped by US guards in front of her husband at Abu Ghraib.
According to the group's head Daham al-Mohammed, the woman's sister who helped in the suicide told of how the woman had been taken into a cell where she saw her husband attached to bars. A US soldier reportedly held her by the hair to force her to look at her husband while he stripped her, then raped her.
A former male prisoner, Amer Abu Durayid, 30, who was released on May 13, reported seeing women taken into a room. "They had to pass in front of our tent and cried out, 'Find a way to kill us'," he said.
Human rights groups say in a conservative society like Iraq, women are made to feel that rape dishonours the whole family and would prefer to die.
Mr Khamas, Mr Mohammed and Baghdad University professor Hoda Nuaimi all separately said three young rural women from the Sunni Muslim region of Al-Anbar had been killed by their families after leaving Abu Ghraib pregnant.
Most of the women arrested by coalition forces are accused of holding senior positions in Saddam Hussein's Baath party or assisting the insurgency against the occupation forces.
The International Committee of the Red Cross says about 30 women were housed in the prison in October. According to prison management, there were five at the beginning of May.
Bron: http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=86121®ion=6