London, November 15: In a new abuse scandal of Iraqi detainees, British soldiers are copying US coercive interrogation techniques used in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, including sexual and physical abuses, reported.
“We were taken to a hall where soldiers started stripping us of our clothes,” Nassir Ghulaim, 24, a Iraqi laborer, said in a letter to the Ministry of Defense.
“They then asked us to pick fights with one another, or fight them. They were laughing at us and taking photos with digital cameras.”
When the Iraqi civilian, who was arrested by British soldiers in April 2007 and taken to a military base, objected the order, the doors of hell opened at him.
“A soldier started hitting me with a baton on my knees and used an electric baton on various parts of my body,” he added.
Ghulaim recalls that his torture session was based on the photographs taken from the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
“They made us squeeze in pile-up, as in Abu Ghraib prison photos, while a soldier stood on top of us and started shouting and laughing,” he recalled in grief.
“I felt so humiliated and treated as a toy they messed up with.”
After a three-day nightmarish experience in the British camp, Ghulaim was freed without charges.
The Defense Ministry said it will investigate the claims of abuses by British soldiers.
The Abu Ghraib scandal first broke out in 2004 after American newspapers published shocking photos taken on mobile and digital cameras by US soldiers of Iraqi detainees.
Prisoners were subjected to severe physical and psychological abuse including the use of dogs to scare and bite prisoners, death threats and sexual abuse. It was also reported that prisoners were raped by American military personnel.
The abuses caused deep resentment across the world, damaging the image of the United States.
Rape
Ghulaim recalls seeing soldiers sexually abusing a young Iraqi man, who was detained with them.
“They picked further on a younger man who was good-looking,” he said.
“They made him strip naked and started messing with his penis and taking photos.”
The letter also features a claim by another Iraqi detainees, who said that he was raped by two British soldiers.
Hussain Hashim Khinyab, who was arrested on April 2006, recalls his hellish experience at the hands of his British jailers.
“While squatting in the toilets or in the showers, a female soldier used to expose her breast or parts of her body, or mess with another soldier in a sexual way in front of me,” he said.
Khinyab, a 35-old carpenter, said soldiers also used to play sexual movies and involve into sexual intercourse before the detainees.
“Soldiers used to play porn movies during evenings and at dawn,” he said.
“I was a practicing Muslim and this behavior was very shameful and humiliating for me.
“Also, a soldier in the observation tower used to point the laser spot of his gun at my penis while I was squatting in the toilet.”
The Iraqi man said that soldiers were also preventing detaining from practicing their religion.
“I also noticed that every time I started praying or reading Qur’an they would play very loud music to distract me and probably other detainees.”
-Agencies