London, November 16: British soldiers forced an Iraqi detainee to wear an orange jump suit and told him that he was to be executed at the US-run Guantanamo Bay camp, according to allegations in a report Monday.
The 23-year-old man alleges he was beaten and sexually abused by female and male soldiers and flown to a British detention centre in southern Iraq which he believed was the “war on terror” camp in Cuba, the Independent said.
The man’s case is among allegations being investigated by Britain’s Ministry of Defence that soldiers tortured Iraqi civilians, according to the newspaper.
The ministry said on Friday it has launched “formal investigations” into allegations of abuse, but they must be allowed to be carried out “without judgments being made prematurely”.
The Independent said 33 cases of alleged abuse had been reported, including claims of rape, the use of torture techniques and physical assault.
The man was a security guard employed to patrol streets of the southern Iraqi town of Amara, when in 2006 he claimed he was arrested by four soldiers.
He alleged he was beaten and taken to a British base in southern Iraq, where he suffered more abuse, including told to remove his clothes before a female soldier pulled his penis with force, while soldiers laughed and took photos.
“I was (later) given a dark orange prisoners outfit to wear… (which) is worn by those who will be executed. I started screaming,” the man alleges in his statement.
“I thought I might be in Guantanamo… but I have no idea how far it is from Iraq. I have heard if I went there I would not see anyone again.”
It is unclear why the man, who was later released, was arrested.
The US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 is viewed by critics as an ‘act of aggression’ that violated international law.
Subsequent US occupation policies caused the country to descend into almost total chaos, bordering on civil war.
An estimated 1.3 million Iraqis have been killed in Iraq as a direct result of the invasion, while millions more have fled the country.
—Agencies