Hometown recalls soldier accused in Iraqi scandal

1.00pm

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania - Residents of the tiny hometown of Spc Jeremy Sivits, the first soldier to be court martialled in the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, say the young man accused of such crimes is not the young man they know.

Sivits, 24, was a "nice, quiet kid" who enlisted in the military right after high school, Del Biller, mayor of the Appalachian mountain town of Hyndman, Pennsylvania, population 1100, said on Sunday.

"Jeremy is not the kind of kid to do something like this," the mayor said. "I can't see him doing this unless he was ordered to do it."

The Sivits family has been kept in the dark about his whereabouts and is frustrated by how little they have been told, the mayor said.

They have been unable to contact him, although they did get a call from him asking for US$20,000, ($32,000) the mayor said.

Sivits, a member of the 800th Military Police Brigade, is charged with conspiracy to maltreat detainees; dereliction of duty for failing to protect detainees from abuse, cruelty and maltreatment; and maltreatment of detainees, the Department of Defence said in a statement. His court martial will begin on May 19 in Baghdad.

A military source said Sivits was alleged to have taken many of the pictures of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, pictures that show soldiers piling naked and hooded detainees on top of one another or posing them to simulate sex acts.

The images, first revealed to the public by US television 10 days ago, have caused a furore around the world and provoked alarm at the highest levels of the US administration.

Sivits trained as a mechanic, his father told local media earlier this week.

"Why was a mechanic allowed to handle prisoners?" Daniel Sivits said to the Baltimore Sun newspaper. "Where was their training? Who was their supervisor? Where was the leadership?"

The elder Sivits has told US media that his son was following orders.

Earlier this week, Coach Nelson Weaver of the local high school told National Public Radio that he "just cannot believe that boy has that ability to do something like that."

"I just feel deep down inside that that's one good boy. I mean, I never had any problems with him or anything that even came close to what they said he did," the coach said.

Local media reported that Sivits got married just before leaving for Iraq from Hyndman, located in the state's mountainous coal-mining region just a few miles from the West Virginia border.

Many residents work in the federal and state prisons located nearby, the mayor said.

The Washington Post reported that Sivits, nicknamed "Puggs," earlier was sent to Bosnia as part of a peacekeeping mission.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq