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| Iraq |
| U.S. Closes Makeshift Iraq Prison Camp |
| 2003-10-06 |
| BAGHDAD, Liberated Iraq (AP) - The U.S. military has shut down Camp Cropper, an increasingly notorious makeshift prison where hundreds of Iraqis were crowded into tents through Baghdad’s scorching summer, a U.S. official reported Sunday. The detainees were scattered to other facilities. The Iraqi Lawyers League, pressing a rights campaign under an ex-political prisoner of the Baath regime, has won another concession from the Americans as well: accelerated hearings, with lawyers, for some of at least 5,500 detained Iraqis. Wonder if anyone will compare our response with the likely response of Saddam to a similar situation? That newly elected league president, Malik Dohan al-Hassan, met with U.S. occupation chief L. Paul Bremer a month ago to register complaints about the internment of thousands of Iraqis without charge since a U.S.-British invasion force toppled Saddam Hussein’s Baath government in April. "I told Bremer the Americans and the Iraqi people ought to have become friends since then, but the way they have handled these things has produced just the opposite effect," Malik said. Journalists were barred from Camp Cropper, but released detainees this summer told of overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, and they alleged physical abuse by guards. The human rights group Amnesty International protested it "may amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, banned by international law." If the reports are true then it was right for us to close the camp. But AI seems a mite more interested in Iraqi prisons now than say, three years ago. The camp population included both Iraqis picked up for allegedly committing common crimes, and so-called "security detainees," mainly Baathists deemed to be a threat to the security of the occupation force. "They are living in tents in the desert, in a very hot climate. Some detainees are sick," said Malik, interviewed Sunday before the closing of the camp was disclosed. The former law professor and Iraqi information minister, who was himself imprisoned for 1 1/2 years by the Baathists after they seized power in 1968, also complained that lawyers were not allowed into the heavily guarded airport. "That was another reason why we closed the airport (camp)," said U.S. Army Col. Ralph Sabatino, who specializes in detainee issues and is a chief liaison with the interim Iraqi Justice Ministry. Sabatino said Cropper was shut down last Wednesday, on Bremer’s orders, and its several hundred inmates were transferred to at least three Baghdad-area prisons. Cropper held as many as 1,200 detainees this summer, Sabatino said. "It wasn’t supposed to be a detention center" but a temporary holding facility, he said. "It was designed for 250 people. When it grew to 500 to 700, it got very crowded. It had a very bad reputation, appropriately." The Army Reserve officer, in civilian life an assistant corporation counsel for the City of New York, said he met with Lawyers League representatives two weeks ago. "Since that time we’ve coordinated to facilitate their representation of people in custody," he said. Our people listen and respond. Hope that makes an impression on the Iraqis. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #4 Didn't take lone for the ambulance chasers to come out. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-10-6 11:33:49 AM |
| #3 So... Camp Cropper came a cropper, y'might say. Or not... |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-10-6 11:04:34 AM |
| #2 WTF, all we did was close the temporary camp and move the prisoners to repaired, permanent prisons. And we are begining to sort through the POWs, and will let those go that don't pose a threat. Sounds all good to me. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-10-6 10:51:14 AM |
| #1 Our people listen and respond. Hope that makes an impression on the Iraqis. Unfortunately, in Honor/Shame societys like Iraq, the impression will probably be one that we Americans are weaklings. I just hope I'm wrong. :( |
| Posted by: N Guard 2003-10-6 2:43:10 AM |