Guantanamo probe finds five Koran mishandling cases

WASHINGTON - The US military has identified five incidents of "mishandling of a Koran" by US personnel at Guantanamo Bay, four by guards and one by an interrogator, the commander of the prison said on Thursday.

Brigadier General Jay Hood refused to specify the nature of the mishandling of the Muslim holy book at the prison for foreign terrorism suspects at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, other than to say it did not involve placing it in a toilet.

Giving preliminary findings of a military inquiry into treatment of the Koran at Guantanamo, Hood told reporters at the Pentagon that investigators turned up 13 incidents of alleged mishandling of the Koran, with five confirmed incidents of mishandling of the book.

Hood also said US military investigators this month interviewed a detainee who an FBI agent quoted in an August 2002 document as saying guards had thrown a Koran in a toilet. Hood said this detainee did not mention during the May 14 interview that US personnel had placed a Koran in a toilet.

But Hood said the military investigators who interviewed the detainee did not specifically ask if he had seen a Koran placed in a toilet.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led war on terrorism, had called on the United States on Thursday to conduct a full inquiry into allegations the Koran was desecrated in Guantanamo Bay.

Musharraf told Christina Rocca, US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs, Pakistanis were "deeply dismayed" by the alleged desecration of the Muslim book at a US military detention centre on Cuba.

The US has said the allegations are not credible.

"He (Musharraf) called for a full inquiry to bring to justice the perpetrators of this shameful act," a foreign ministry statement quoted Musharraf as telling Rocca during talks in Islamabad.

"Assistant Secretary Rocca assured the President that the US government was investigating these allegations and those responsible would be held accountable," the ministry's statement said. There was no immediate comment from the US side.

A report in May 9 Newsweek magazine that US interrogators at US detention centre in Cuba had flushed a Koran down a toilet sparked protests in Afghanistan, where 16 people died, as well as in Pakistan and other Muslim countries.

The Bush administration denounced the article as wrong, but the issue refused to go away despite the magazine's retraction of the story.

On Wednesday, the US government released a memo written by an FBI agent in 2002 that said a Guantanamo Bay detainee had accused American jailers of flushing a Koran down the toilet.

The Pentagon said the allegation was not credible.

Pakistan's hard line Islamic groups, which oppose Musharraf's support for the war on terrorism, plan more anti-US rallies to protest the alleged desecration, though their earlier protests failed to attract big crowds.

Musharraf expressed satisfaction over joint cooperation with the United States in economic, defence and security fields, the statement said.

The US administration announced in March it would resume sales of F-16 fighter aircraft to Pakistan, ending a freeze imposed on Pakistan nearly 16 years ago because of its nuclear programme. The US move was seen as a reward for Islamabad for its support to Washington's war on terrorism.

On Wednesday, a US official said Pakistan had asked about buying 75 new F-16C/D Falcon fighters.

- REUTERS