Abuse reports damage Australian Government

By GREG ANSLEY

CANBERRA - The torture of Iraqis by American troops in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail moved closer to Australia yesterday as claims emerged that Canberra was receiving regular reports of prisoner abuse from October last year.

The reports were reportedly filed by an Australian Army major who liaised with the International Committee of the Red Cross when allegations first surfaced.

He was working in the office of the United States staff judge advocate in Baghdad when photographs of prisoner abuse started to circulate.

Australian Foreign Affairs officials have said they did not know of allegations of the abuse and torture of Iraqi prisoners until January, when the story broke and the US released a statement.

Senior Government figures claim to have been made aware of the Abu Ghraib scandal even later. Defence Minister Robert Hill earlier said he first heard of the abuse in February, and Prime Minister John Howard said that he was not aware of the issue until the story broke last month.

Howard told Parliament that legal officer Major George O'Kane had responded to a Red Cross report on "general issues of detainee treatment" last October, but that did not mean he or Canberra were aware of later, more serious Red Cross concerns.

"I can simply say that there has been absolutely no involvement by Australians in this behaviour," he said. "There is no evidence that Australians were involved in any way in this."

But the Sydney Morning Herald report detailing the reports filed by O'Kane from the time of the first Red Cross complaints come as Australia's disenchantment with the war grows.

Amnesty International has told Canberra that as a member of the US-led Coalition of the Willing, Australia must accept responsibility for the actions of coalition troops in Iraq.

Amnesty's latest annual report says that Canberra had also invoked national security to justify the erosion of human rights safeguards in draft laws on anti-terrorism measures and refugee rights.

These included the passing of laws last year giving authorities power to detain people suspected of having knowledge of terrorist activities for seven days without facing court.

Further tough laws have been passed since then, and yesterday Attorney-General Philip Ruddock gave notice of new moves to give police access to stored emails, voicemails and SMS messages, block the disclosure of national security information in open court, and require lawyers in sensitive trials to gain security clearances.

Critics have also accused the Government of failing to act to protect the rights of two Australians held in the American military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, despite startling new allegations of torture and abuse.

Witnesses have told of beatings, electric shocks and other physical abuse and humiliation administered to David Hicks, a convert to militant Islam who was captured in Afghanistan, and Mamdouh Habib, arrested as a suspected terrorist in Pakistan more than two years ago.

Unlike Britain, which intervened on behalf of its nationals at Guantanamo Bay, Canberra has never demanded physical examinations and has instead been satisfied by US assurances on Hicks' and Habib's wellbeing.

New concerns have now arisen for another Australian, Ahmed Aziz Rafiq, who was arrested in northern Iraq and held for four months until being handed to coalition forces.

Australian consular officials have seen Rafiq and reported that he is in good health.

The latest allegations of Australian foreknowledge of the Abu Ghraib abuses will add to mounting pressure on the Government over its policies in Iraq and the continued involvement of its forces.

Although the Sydney Morning Herald said there was no suggestion that O'Kane was involved in, had witnessed or endorsed the abuse, the claim that he knew of the scandal from the very start and had filed weekly reports about his concerns may be damaging.

Herald Feature: Iraq