US might release new pictures of prison abuse

Producer: Valarie Tan
First broadcast: 14 May 04, Radio Singapore International

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said during his brief visit to Iraq that he was willing to release new pictures detailing the abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison.

The new images were previously shown to US lawmakers who expressed disgust and anger at what they saw.

So will releasing these photos worsen the already dire situation?

Valarie Tan put this question to Dr. Rosemary Hollis, Head of the Middle East Programme from the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London.

RH: I honestly think it's a very bad situation in the first place. And it could only deteriorate if there are more pictures shown, because its like an invitation, an incitement for the Iraqis to retaliate, to seek retribution.

But what will the new pictures imply for the American public?

RH: There are mixed signals coming in from the American public. The beheading of the young man, Berg, has certainly made them angry. The pictures of their own are putting a whole new face on war. And one of the few miserably good things that could come out of this, is a larger public awareness of what war actually means. It has always meant abuse and mistreatment and people running amok and young men trained to kill who can't keep to the rule books all the time when they're expected to be nice to civilians. This kind of thing has always happened. We're now into a greater public awareness regarding what's at stake.

The US prison guards have pled guilty to the charges of prisoners' abuse. I understand that they're essentially junior officers working in the prison. Some people might say that these prison guards are actually scapegoats for who were ultimately responsible at the Abu Ghraib prison, reputably to be civilian intelligence officers. Do you agree with that statement?

RH: The additional pictures do certainly substantiate the view that this was not some have called them, a few bad apples. It was not an abhorration. It was a systematic policy to employ certain interrogation techniques which involves humiliation and abuse, including sexual abuse and sexual humiliation. We're just beginning to hear that some of these have also happened at Guantanamo Bay. In other words, this may be the US way of conducting interrogation of all detainees held since Sept 11th in various parts of the world .And if so, I think you're absolutely correct. I think its very important that the debate in the United States becomes clear and open that this is what the country has decided is in their best interests and they may feel differently at the public level.

On that note then, would you say that the blame is now intentionally put on the individual level rather than on the systemic level?

RH: I really don't think its going to stop at court martialing and charging a few members of the ranks who are saying they're simply carrying out orders and that this was a policy that they were instructed to implement. Especially because we're getting many indications that within the US armed forces that the senior officers are themselves angry that they've been led into this situation by the civilians at the Pentagon. In other words, the cabinet level.

US forces have released just over 300 prisoners from Abu Ghraib prison.

Some 5000 so-called "security detainees" remain inside.

But Dr Gareth Stansfield from the Royal Institute of International Affairs, doesn't think releasing the prisoners will improve the situation between Iraq and the US troops.

GS: So if they're releasing people who were previously insurgents then they're going to carry on being insurgents. The problem is already been created. I don't think the public release of prisoners will stop this. We should also say that Saddam Hussein also did the exact same strategy when he was in trouble as well. He would release prisoners from the Abu Ghraib. So Americans are increasingly copying what Saddam himself did.