US soldier saw Iraqi prisoners abused months before scandal

1.00pm - ANDREW BUNCOMBE in Washington


A US soldier has detailed how he witnessed troops carrying out "mock" executions of Iraqi prisoners and refusing to let them sleep at the command of interrogators - months before the notorious abuse at Abu Ghraib prison took place.

The soldier said he and his colleagues were openly told not to refer to the detention centre they were working in at Al Assad Airforce Base as a Prisoner of War camp as it breached guidelines set out by the Geneva Conventions.

It was generally accepted that most of the prisoners were civilians rounded up by the US forces.

The sworn statement provided by Staff Sgt Camilo Mejia provides further evidence that the abuse at Abu Ghraib, initially revealed by photographs that shocked America and outraged the Arab world, was not the isolated incident that senior military officials claim.

The incidents to which he refers took place in early May 2003 - many months before the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad.

His testimony also highlights the role of officials from Military Intelligence (MI) in ordering the so-called "softening up" of prisoners.

Mr Mejia refers to three interrogators known to the soldiers only by their nicknames "Scooter", "Rabbit" and "Arty".

"Three mysterious interrogators...instructed the guarding soldiers to keep certain detainees in sleep deprivation. This was done to break the detainees resolve to remain quiet when asked sensitive questions," he says.

"Keeping those detainees awake...required some pretty tough measures. The easiest way to do this was to constantly yell at the detainees, make them move their arms up and down, make them sit and stand for several minutes. When these techniques failed we would bang on the wall with a huge sledgehammer - you can imagine the frightening echo - or load a 9mm pistol next to their ear."

He adds: "The way we treated these men was hard for the soldiers, especially after realising that many of these combatants were no more than shepherds."

Mr Mejia, 28, an infantrymen with the Florida National Guard, is currently being tried by a military court at Fort Stewart, Georgia, where is accused of desertion after failing to return to his unit in Iraq following two weeks of home leave.

In a sworn statement, obtained by The Independent, Mr Mejia has applied for conscientious objector status.

He claims the war was "fought for oil" and that he opposed the abuse of Iraqi civilians.

On Wednesday, the first day of the court-martial, Mr Mejia's lawyers spent much of their time seeking permission from the military judge, Colonel Gary Smith, to allow testimony from witnesses who could support the infantryman's claim that his unit was ordered to abuse prisoners.

Ramsey Clark, a US attorney general under President Lyndon Johnson, said: "The United States is seeking to court-martial soldiers [in Iraq] for outrageous abuses at the same time it prosecutes a soldier halfway around the world because he did what he had a duty to do under international law."

Mr Mejia faces a year in prison and a bad-conduct discharge if he is convicted of desertion. Military law defines desertion as leaving the military with no intention to return or to "avoid hazardous duty or to shirk important service".

Captain AJ Balbo, the army's lead prosecutor, argued that even if Mr Mejia saw prisoners being abused that would not justify running away from the Army for five months.

"This is about a soldier who deserted, who ran away," he said. "While he went into hiding, he never raised these issues. Instead, he buried them in his conscientious objector packet."

Mr Mejia told reporters: "I can only say, whatever I did, I did because I felt like I had an obligation - moral and in some cases legal."

- INDEPENDENT

Herald Feature: Iraq