Iraqi forces are committing systematic torture and other abuses against people in detention, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a new report released Tuesday.
The new report, The New Iraq? Torture and Ill-treatment of Detainees in Iraqi Custody, documents how unlawful arrest, long-term incommunicado detention, torture and other ill-treatment of detainees, including children, by Iraqi authorities have become routine and commonplace.
HRW said the attacks on Iraqi police do not justify the abuses committed by Iraqi authorities.
“The people of Iraq were promised something better than this after the government of Saddam Hussein fell,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division. “The Iraqi Interim Government is not keeping its promises to honor and respect basic human rights. Sadly, the Iraqi people continue to suffer from a government that acts with impunity in its treatment of detainees.”
Methods of torture cited by detainees include routine beatings to the body using cables, hosepipes and other implements, the report added.
