Australia denies Abu Ghraib cover-up

By GREG ANSLEY

CANBERRA - The Australian Government yesterday released a detailed denial of allegations that it had tried to cover up its knowledge of torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison.

The claims followed revelations that an Australian military lawyer working with United States authorities had been told late last year of Red Cross concerns about conditions at the prison, conflicting with Government claims to have heard about allegations of abuse only when they were made public by the US in January.

Defence officials were later forced to apologise to Prime Minister John Howard for misleading him on the timing of its knowledge of the Red Cross concerns seen and reported by lawyer Major George O'Kane.

But Defence Minister Robert Hill yesterday tabled an exhaustive report on Australian involvement at Abu Ghraib, supporting the Government's position that it had no early or secret advice on the prisoner abuse.

Hill said the International Committee of the Red Cross continued to deny Canberra copies of its detailed reports because Australia was not a detaining authority, having handed over the 120 or so prisoners it took during combat in March and April last year to the US.

This was four months before Abu Ghraib was re-opened by the US, and the Red Cross had noted that detainees there had mainly been captured early last October.

The Government's refutation of Labor claims of a cover-up also followed comments by Brigadier-General Janis Karpinski, the American commander suspended in the wake of the Abu Ghraib revelations.

She told The Australian that she did not believe O'Kane knew anything about the torture at the prison, and that had he known about the photographs depicting the abuse "or anything close to those photographs" he would have reported it to her.

In his statement to the Senate Hill said Australians had played no role in the confinement or interrogation of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison or any other Iraqi jail.

He said the Defence Force had become aware of Red Cross allegations on Abu Ghraib in February through its officers working for the Coalition Provisional Authority.

O'Kane, working at Coalition Force headquarters in Baghdad, had in November helped to frame the authority's response to Red Cross working papers prepared after visits to Abu Ghraib the previous month.

No allegations of torture or serious abuse were contained in the October report, nor were officials in Australia told of the documents at the time.

Herald Feature: Iraq