Ex-detainee tells of torture in US jail

BAGHDAD－"The Americans have nothing to do with human rights. It is a concept they use to seek interests," said Bedu al-Hamad, a former Iraqi detainee who was jailed by the US army for more than two years.

Al-Hamad, 59, who was head of the reconstruction committee of the Municipal Council of the Duluiyah town, Salahuddin Province, spent 26 months and 20 days in US detention even though he said he had not committed any crimes.

The Sunni-dominated town of Duluiyah is a symbol of resistance to US occupation, where US troops were confronted with countless attacks and ambushed by armed groups in the town along the Tigris, especially in 2008, when the attacks reached their peak.

On Aug 21, 2008, US troops accused al-Hamad of supporting terrorism and arrested him, weeks after he attended a meeting at the Municipal Council in Duluiyah.

"Before the end of the meeting, the Americans came and told us: What right do you have to meet and decide to change the mayor without our knowledge? We've brought you to power and liberated you," al-Hamad said, who had a heated argument with a soldier.

Then the soldier threatened al-Hamad with a gun and said, "I would shoot you in the head."

Weeks later, al-Hamad was arrested and his journey began through the US investigation and detention centers. He was transferred between six detention centers that lacked the most basic human rights.

According to a report by the Costs of War project at Brown University, more than 100,000 prisoners passed through the US-run detention system in Iraq, with most prisoners lacking effective methods to challenge their imprisonment.

Al-Hamad said that when he was transported from Tikrit to Baghdad with other detainees, he was handcuffed and squatting in the helicopter, which caused damage to his back that lasted for years.

His suffering worsened a year after his arrest when the US troops told al-Hamad that they had conclusive evidence that he had nothing to do with the accusation against him, but they continued to detain him for more than a year.

"One soldier told me that it has been proven to us … that you are innocent, but you will continue your imprisonment," al-Hamad said.

Al-Hamad, who now works for a humanitarian organization, described life in the prison as hell, saying that the food the US troops provide is just enough to subsist on, and there are few visits by detainees' relatives. He could not recognize his son during one visit because of his psychological condition, he said.

One of the many horrific violations committed by US troops was solitary confinement, when they shut a detainee in for a month, preventing him from seeing anyone, and exposed him to extreme winter cold or summer heat, he said.

"I am convinced that human rights, freedom, and democracy are false American slogans that they use against anyone who opposes them," he said.

Xinhua