Number of prisoners held by US in Iraq grows

WASHINGTON - US forces currently hold about 10,600 detainees in Iraq in three permanent facilities and various temporary field prisons, a sizable jump since last fall, the US military said.

The large number of prisoners apprehended in recent operations against insurgents, including the November offensive in Falluja, accounted for the increases, said Lt. Col. Guy Rudisill, a US military spokesman.

Another 600 detainees were in US custody in Afghanistan, defence officials said, also a rise over recent levels.

Human rights activists worried that the growing number of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan would greatly increase the pressure on the permanent US detention facilities as well as on temporary facilities scattered around the country.

New York-based Human Rights First said conditions have been poor and abuse has been frequent at these temporary facilities, which often are no more than a series of trailers surrounded by barbed wire.

Deborah Pearlstein, director of the US Law and Security Programme at Human Rights First, noted that current detainee population levels in Iraq are close to those from late 2003, when numerous instances of abuse occurred at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad and other locations.

"The conditions in Iraq and elsewhere are now such that we're poised to repeat the same mistakes as the past, " Pearlstein said.

But US officials said numerous safeguards have been put in place since last year's revelations about the abuse and sexual humiliation of prisoners at the hands of US forces at Abu Ghraib.

"No, we are not overburdened with these numbers of detainees. We have the capacity to increase our facilities if the need arises," Rudisill said by email.

US forces now hold 6,054 people at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq, 3,313 at Abu Ghraib and 112 at the Camp Cropper facility for "high-value" detainees at Baghdad International Airport, for a total of 9,479 at three permanent facilities, Rudisill said.

Another approximately 1,200 prisoners are in temporary detention facilities at US forward operating bases, bringing the total to 10,671, Rudisill added.

Monthly figures provided by Rudisill showed a steady rise in detainee populations in the permanent facilities in Iraq dating back to last fall: 5,682 in September; 5,903 in October; 7,037 in November; 7,450 in December; 8,385 in January; and 8,914 in February.

He did not provide numbers for the temporary field facilities for those months. But the number is believed to have fluctuated between about 500 and 1,000.

Rudisill said US forces now hold about 100 prisoners age 18 or younger, all at one of the permanent detention sites.

"They are completely separated from the remainder of the detainees," said Rudisill, adding that US forces have created educational programmes and a library for them.

Rudisill said a process has been put in place to ensure each prisoner is reviewed for possible release at least every six months. He said a board made up of three US military representatives and six Iraqi government representatives decide whether to release detainees or continue their imprisonment.

More than 130 detainees were released through this process last Sunday, he said.

Pearlstein said the Pentagon had made some improvements, citing for example a policy that no detainee can be kept at a temporary field prison for more than two weeks.

- REUTERS