 | I'm so suprised. Iraq's always been such a gentle land, with no tradition of police brutality... |
Mohammed Khalaf al-Jumaily, a judge in west Baghdad's major crimes court, says he regularly sees suspects hauled before his bench who have been clearly badly beaten. "Sometimes they cannot even stand up," he said. "I often order them to be sent to hospital to treat their broken bones." However, he says, the suspects will not admit to having been tortured, for fear that the police will take them back to the cells and do worse. "They never complain to us, and if they do not complain then I can do nothing to help them."
| Presumably, he'd be helping them after they were taken back to the cells and thoroughly re-thumped... |
The Iraqi police's use of torture against criminal and insurgent suspects is an open secret in Baghdad's criminal justice system.
| But don't tell nobody, okay? |
In a report issued on Tuesday, the US-based Human Rights Watch accused Iraqi security forces of committing systematic torture against detainees.
| Such things never took place under Saddam Hussein... |
However, many police and others involved in the system think that torture is justified, given that the rule of law has virtually collapsed, and guerrillas and criminal gangs are often better armed than the police. "I can't condemn the officers who practise torture," said Alaa Hamed, a guard in the major crimes court. "Crime is very widespread, and the criminals are very professional."
| ... and what justice does get meted out is very unofficial... |
Baghdad's policemen regularly complain that they do not have the equipment to fight criminal gangs, and that they are afraid to make arrests for fear that the suspect's families will target them for retribution. Court officials say that most victims appear to have been picked up during massive sweeps of high crime districts or insurgent strongholds, and the torture appears to be a way of deterring any retribution.
| I guess it's hard to take Dire Revenge™ on the coppers when both your arms are broken.I suppose you could ask Cousin Mahmoud to do it, but he's waiting for kneecap replacement... |
One judge who refused to disclose his name said he tried to let off lightly insurgents who had targeted Americans — they needed to be coached to prevent them from boasting about their exploits. However, if the suspect had targeted a policeman or other Iraqi official, he would not be brought to trial but beaten, thrown in a cell, and forgotten.
| It's an old Iraqi tradition... |
Some of the abuses appear to have sectarian roots. During the Shia rebellions in the poor Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, many residents complained of abuses by the capital's largely Sunni police force. Residents of Sunni areas also often complain of ill-treatment at the hands of Shia recruits to the National Guard. Sometimes security forces have even been observed to come to blows over the issue. Last summer, an FT correspondent witnessed about two dozen National Guardsmen, mostly recent recruits, brawl with a roughly equal number of police, mostly veterans of the Saddam Hussein era, in an attempt to stop them from beating up a taxi driver who had insulted an officer. The police managed to retain control of the taxi driver, whom they took back to the station, slapped around and then let go.
| I don't think anyone's particularly surprised by this, not even HRW. The roots of the current crop of police are in the same soil that sprouted Saddam. Things weren't sweetness and light before him, either. The important thing, at this point, is that it's not policy. Hypocrisy has its uses, and one of them is dealing with a real problem — a surfeit of thugs — using methods that you publicly disapprove of. As time goes by and things get better, the thumpings can dwindle away to next to nothing as the coppers take on the aspect of Officer Friendly. At the moment they're at war, literally, with the Bad Guyz of all stripes. |
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