Sergeants face trial on prison sex torment

1.00pm

BAGHDAD - Two US sergeants will face court martial on a string of charges relating to the assault and sexual humiliation of Iraqi detainees at Saddam Hussein's once notorious Abu Ghraib prison, officials said on Wednesday.

No dates were fixed for the trials of Staff Sergeant Ivan "Chip" Frederick and Sergeant Javal Davis. Among the charges, Frederick is accused of indecency by watching with women guards as other soldiers photographed prisoners masturbating.

Washington, battling to appease Arab outrage, has promised full disclosure. It detailed all the charges against the pair as well as against a lower-ranking soldier, Specialist Jeremy Sivits, who faces court martial in Baghdad next week.

Four other military police, including two women, have also been charged and may be sent for court martial later.

Attempts by President George W Bush's administration to limit the damage to its mission in Iraq by focusing on the case of the Abu Ghraib seven have been hindered by the Red Cross saying it warned Washington of systematic abuse last year.

"We saw immediately that people were being systematically psychologically and physically humiliated," Germany's Der Spiegel magazine quoted Red Cross spokesman Roland Huguenin-Benjamin as saying of prison visits a year ago.

Some of those accused blame orders from much higher up in the military command for the abuses.

Most of the accusations relate to November 8, when several naked prisoners were made to pile on top of one another. Sivits is accused of taking now infamous photographs of the pyramid.

Davis and Frederick are accused of hitting the detainees. Frederick is also charged with allowing a hooded prisoner to be placed standing on a box with wires on his hands and told he would be electrocuted if he fell off. Davis was charged with lying in an official statement.

Bush's main ally in Iraq, Prime Minister Tony Blair, is also under fire over allegations of misconduct by British soldiers.

The beheading of an American hostage by al Qaeda militants in Iraq, said to be in reprisal for the abuse, gave a poisonous twist to an affair which has undermined US efforts to ensure a stable, pro-American Iraq will recover its sovereignty on June 30.

Civilian Nick Berg, 26, may have been killed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, according to a video showing Berg's last moments. It increased fears for other hostages, including US soldier Keith Maupin.

US officials denied allegations by Berg's family that US forces detained Berg for a time, delaying his departure. They did confirm FBI agents visited him three times when he was in Iraqi custody.

Despite renewed fighting with Shi'ite militia in the holy city of Kerbala, there were signs, however, that another of the main military threats to US troops in Iraq may be receding.

Moqtada al-Sadr, the young cleric leading the month-old uprising, said he was ready to disband his Mehdi army militia.

With a now familiar ambivalence, Sadr also told a rare news conference at Islam's holiest Shi'ite shrine in Najaf, he would still oppose a US-led occupation he likened to the tyrannical rule of Saddam Hussein. But his aides were in negotiations.

It remained difficult to separate face-saving bravado from hard bargaining during the firebrand's first personal comment.

But, under pressure from Shi'ite elders and from US forces on the ground, his aides said on Tuesday they had done a deal with Shi'ite political parties which could end fighting -- possibly by setting up an Iraqi force to replace withdrawn US troops in the holy cities.

"The dissolution of the Mehdi army depends on the religious authorities. If they issue an edict to disband the Mehdi army then we will disband it," Sadr said at Najaf's Imam Ali shrine, where he and many of his fighters have sought sanctuary in the face of a US military onslaught.

Coalition authority spokesman Dan Senor responded cautiously, saying it still demanded that Sadr disband his militia and face charges over the murder of a fellow cleric. US officials have yet to be involved directly in talks.

Sadr has made similar offers before. But circumstances have moved sharply against him, with people in Najaf exasperated at the economic consequences of the standoff with US troops and Shi'ite elders growing angrier at the young man's ambitions.

The deal sketched out among the Shi'ite groups could follow a model adopted by US commanders in the rebellious Sunni city of Falluja two weeks ago, which allowed Iraqi fighters to join a local security force while US troops pulled back.

The US commander for the region south of Baghdad said he could imagine an arrangement taking in former Sadr fighters.

But fresh fighting with the militia in Kerbala left anywhere between five and 20 guerrillas dead, the US military said. Young men loyal to Sadr were holed up in a mosque and surrounded by US tanks. There were also skirmishes elsewhere.

Continuing violence has claimed the lives of at least 564 US soldiers, including one in western Iraq on Tuesday, increasing pressure among some US voters for troops to leave.

A Filipino worker was killed in a mortar attack at a US base north of Baghdad. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said she would review the safety of 3000 compatriots in Iraq.

Some Iraqis question the occupation. But others fear greater anarchy could follow if US firepower is removed.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq