May 10 2004 at 04:39PM

Former detainees tell of Iraq prison drama

By Deborah Pasmantier

Baghdad - From north to south, Iraqis have detailed abuse at United States-run detention centres as military officials insist gruesome deeds at the Abu Ghraib jail were the work of a few and not an indictment of the entire system.

But human rights campaigners say torture is endemic at camps across the country, while others lambast the American military for continuing to deny all but the International Committee of the Red Cross access to security detainees.

Qusay Mehawish, 23, told reporters that he was held for five months at various prisons, including the infamous Abu Ghraib, because the Americans were hunting down his father, a former army general under deposed leader Saddam Hussein.
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'They beat me and I couldn't move'

Arrested in October, he said he was abused during a two-hour interrogation at Camp Tiger, near the Iraqi-Syrian border.

"They hit me with a truncheon, beating me on the ribs so as not to leave any marks. Once, they electrocuted me in the nape of the neck. I had to sit on my knees. They beat me and I couldn't move," he said.

"When I fell, a soldier put a gun to my head. He told me he had come to kill me and pulled the trigger, but it wasn't loaded."

Ten days later, he was taken to Camp Bagdadi, in Al-Anbar province.

"The interrogator put me in a sleeping bag and coiled a long belt around my body. Then he put my head in a plastic bag and pulled it tight. I was suffocating, I thought I was going to die," he added.

Complaints by ordinary criminals included violence and manhandling

Najm Majid, a shopkeeper in his 50s, was jailed for six months at Abu Ghraib on suspicion of belonging to an Islamist group, before being released in January.

"They beat and spat on me. They stuck my arms out in the air and burnt me with cigarettes. When I said I was tired, they hit me. They hooked up electric wires to my arms and feet, just to scare me," he said.