Abuses: history of conflict repeated

BRUSSELS – The torture and humiliation of prisoners in Iraq by US soldiers is just another chapter in a long history of wartime atrocities, this time writ larger courtesy of the digital camera, the Internet and television.

“I have no doubt that what we are seeing is typical of almost any conflict anywhere,” said Paul Rogers, professor of peace studies at England’s University of Bradford. “It very rarely comes to the surface but if you look at French behaviour in Algiers, the British behaviour in Cyprus and… virtually any other state involved in significant warfare, conduct always and persistently slips.”Pictures of grinning US soldiers abusing naked Iraqis at a prison once used by Saddam Hussein’s torturers have been splashed across newspapers across the world.A US general’s probe into abuses recounted detainees being sodomised, beaten, kept naked for days and forced to masturbate while being filmed.The scandal has revived memories of the 1968 My Lai massacre of hundreds of men, women and children in the Vietnam War, which savaged public support for the US role in that conflict when it came to light 18 months later.To some extent, the reports of abuse now under scrutiny echo routine charges made by Palestinians held in Israeli detention of hooding, sleep deprivation, nudity, cold showers and long periods of enforced standing.An Israeli state commission enquiry into torture allegations in 1987 concluded that “a moderate measure of physical pressure” was permissible to glean information from detainees.But experts said the handling of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad does not appear to have been sanctioned by senior officers and nor does it appear to have been part of an overall strategy.”If you look at the sorts of atrocities that were carried out in Bosnia in 1992-95 you see similar sorts of patterns, although some incidents were far more brutal than anything we have so far witnessed in Iraq,” said Rachel Kerr from the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London.”And the distinction is that it was for a political purpose, not something carried out by rogue individuals.”Kerr suggested the abuses reported in Iraq may simply be down to poor training and ill-discipline.Critics also say that US President George W Bush’s aggressive pursuit of “evildoers” following the September 11 attacks in 2001 – including denying detainees from Iraq and Afghanistan formal standing under the Geneva Convention – may have given soldiers a sense of “anything goes” in battle.”Abu Ghraib wasn’t the result of a couple of lone sadists in the military – it was a direct and easily foreseen consequence of detention policies that lack transparency and safeguards…,” the American Civil Liberties Union said in a letter to Bush.But as others condemn the reported abuses in Iraq, one US Senator has expressed outrage at the outcry and took aim at “humanitarian do-gooders” investigating American troops.French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy said it was to the credit of US democracy that the images of torture had been revealed so quickly and become the subject of public debate.This contrasted with what he said was the years-long cover-up of torture by French troops of Algerian prisoners during the Algerian war of independence.”The great lesson from history is that… there is always this,” he told Europe 1 radio.”No part of humanity is immune from this type of disgraceful behaviour.The devil is there, barbarity is in us all, and so also in an American soldier.”- Nampa-Reuters * Additional reporting by Mark John in Paris”It very rarely comes to the surface but if you look at French behaviour in Algiers, the British behaviour in Cyprus and… virtually any other state involved in significant warfare, conduct always and persistently slips.”Pictures of grinning US soldiers abusing naked Iraqis at a prison once used by Saddam Hussein’s torturers have been splashed across newspapers across the world.A US general’s probe into abuses recounted detainees being sodomised, beaten, kept naked for days and forced to masturbate while being filmed.The scandal has revived memories of the 1968 My Lai massacre of hundreds of men, women and children in the Vietnam War, which savaged public support for the US role in that conflict when it came to light 18 months later.To some extent, the reports of abuse now under scrutiny echo routine charges made by Palestinians held in Israeli detention of hooding, sleep deprivation, nudity, cold showers and long periods of enforced standing.An Israeli state commission enquiry into torture allegations in 1987 concluded that “a moderate measure of physical pressure” was permissible to glean information from detainees.But experts said the handling of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad does not appear to have been sanctioned by senior officers and nor does it appear to have been part of an overall strategy.”If you look at the sorts of atrocities that were carried out in Bosnia in 1992-95 you see similar sorts of patterns, although some incidents were far more brutal than anything we have so far witnessed in Iraq,” said Rachel Kerr from the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London.”And the distinction is that it was for a political purpose, not something carried out by rogue individuals.”Kerr suggested the abuses reported in Iraq may simply be down to poor training and ill-discipline.Critics also say that US President George W Bush’s aggressive pursuit of “evildoers” following the September 11 attacks in 2001 – including denying detainees from Iraq and Afghanistan formal standing under the Geneva Convention – may have given soldiers a sense of “anything goes” in battle.”Abu Ghraib wasn’t the result of a couple of lone sadists in the military – it was a direct and easily foreseen consequence of detention policies that lack transparency and safeguards…,” the American Civil Liberties Union said in a letter to Bush.But as others condemn the reported abuses in Iraq, one US Senator has expressed outrage at the outcry and took aim at “humanitarian do-gooders” investigating American troops.French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy said it was to the credit of US democracy that the images of torture had been revealed so quickly and become the subject of public debate.This contrasted with what he said was the years-long cover-up of torture by French troops of Algerian prisoners during the Algerian war of independence.”The great lesson from history is that… there is always this,” he told Europe 1 radio.”No part of humanity is immune from this type of disgraceful behaviour.The devil is there, barbarity is in us all, and so also in an American soldier.”- Nampa-Reuters * Additional reporting by Mark John in Paris