Iraq's secret prison of horror and death unveiled

By ANDREW BUNCOMBE in Baghdad

Wednesday was the day for killing and Thursday was the day relatives paid to collect the bodies of the dead.

How prisoners were executed depended on an order from above - a bullet to the back of the head for those deemed to deserve a degree of mercy and the rope for those destined to suffer.

On the morning of his death a prisoner was asked for permission to be killed: those who agreed first received a glass of water and brief reading of some verses from the Koran, while those who said no went straight to the hangman's noose.

These were the workings of the notorious Abu Ghraib Prison, a sprawling complex of barred cells, razor wire and watch towers 32km west of Baghdad and at various times during President Saddam Hussein's rule, home for up to 75,000 prisoners. As the closed and secret world of the Iraqi regime continues to give up its secrets, there is perhaps nowhere more disturbing than Abu Ghraib.

"Millions of people were killed here," said a man in a red T-shirt who was walking around the prison yesterday with some friends who seemed to know the workings of the execution chamber.

How many people fell through the trap-doors of Abu Ghraib Prison is a figure that will likely never be known. Thousands certainly - one former Army officer who defected to the West said that 2000 people were killed here in one night alone. But under Saddam's rule, scores and possibly even hundreds of thousands of people may have met their deaths at the regime's most notorious prison.

Two hangman's nooses lay on the floor, the loops of the waxed hemp rope wrapped in white bandages - presumably to prevent the rope from decapitating people. Nearby lay two black bags used to cover prisoners' heads. There were no steps up to the gallows, but rather a ramp. "If there were steps the prisoner would have known that he had reached the end and may have struggled," said another man.

While some of the inmates were sentenced for "normal" crimes, many were political prisoners - often Shias from the south or else the slum of Saddam City in Baghdad - sent there for allegedly conspiring against the state. In the holding cells a number of names and dates had been scratched onto the walls by men waiting to die.

Okil. Rashid - March 15, 2002. Sadeq. Sadun. Hassan - November 17, 1999.

"There were separate sections for Iraqi prisoners and for those from other countries," said another man, Jomah Mriar, 23, who eventually admitted that he had worked at Abu Ghraib, carrying in food and provisions for the guards. He had watched the prisoners receive brutal beatings and he had accepted money from them to bring food and cigarettes. Mriar looked nervous, apparently frightened to admit he had worked at the prison.

His cousin, Mahmood Mriar, said he lived nearby and knew that the executions were normally carried out on Wednesdays. On Thursdays he would watch family members come to collect the corpses.

"If they had been shot the relatives would only get the bodies if they paid for the bullets," he said. "If not, the Government would bury the bodies in a grave with up to 50 other prisoners."

Abu Ghraib is now silent. In an effort to increase support, Saddam all but emptied the country's jails last October, keeping only political prisoners. These were driven away on trucks, said the two men, two days before the US bombing started. Their whereabouts are unknown.

American forces are searching Abu Ghraib for documents that might form the basis of prosecutions. There are plenty to sift through. They lie on the floors of destroyed offices or scattered by the wind in the jail's grounds.

- INDEPENDENT

Herald Feature: Iraq war