Iraqi forces 'abusing detainees'
Pressure group's report points to 'routine' rights violations
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(CNN) -- Iraqi security forces are committing systematic torture and other abuses against people in detention, the pressure group Human Rights Watch says in a new report.
"Tolerance of the abuse of detainees by government agencies remains high," says the 94-page report released Tuesday.
International police advisers, largely funded by the U.S. government, "have turned a blind eye to these rampant abuses," it says.
"The Iraqi interim government led by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi ... appears to be actively taking part, or is at least complicit, in these grave violations of fundamental human rights. Nor has the United States, the United Kingdom or other involved governments publicly taken up these issues as a matter of concern."
Human Rights Watch says that on the basis of research conducted in Iraq from July to October 2004, "the abuse of detainees by the Iraqi police and intelligence forces has become routine and commonplace."
It says the police and intelligence services make arrests without warrants issued by an appropriate judicial authority, frequently on the basis of information provided by "secret informants" from within the police force.
Methods of torture cited in the report -- titled "The New Iraq? Torture and ill-treatment of detainees in Iraqi custody" -- include routine beatings using cables, hosepipe and aluminum rods, electric shocks and being kept blindfolded and handcuffed for several days.
Detainees also reported being being crammed into small cells with standing room only.
Many claim Iraqi police sought bribes in return for release, access to family members or food and water. In several cases, detainees suffered what may be permanent physical disability, the human rights group claims.
The report does not address the mistreatment of people in the custody of U.S. or other international forces in Iraq.
"It is very distressing," Steven Crawshaw, the London director of Human Rights Watch, told CNN. "It is very, very serious -- an absolute pattern of abuse.
"If Iraq is to become a democratic country... starting it off with a pattern of torture like this is really not the right way to be going."
New York-based executive director Sarah Leah Whitson claimed the abuses were being allowed to go unchecked in attempts to bring stability to Iraq.
"The people of Iraq were promised something better than this after the government of Saddam Hussein fell," she told the UK's Press Association.
"The Iraqi interim government is not keeping its promises to honor and respect basic human rights. Sadly, the Iraqi people continue to suffer from a government that acts with impunity in its treatment of detainees."
The Iraqi government told The Associated Press it had received reports from non-government organization of the abuse and torture of detainees in prisons supervised by the Iraqi security forces.
"That led the ministry's investigative committees to intensify their visits to these prisons and launched an extensive investigation with both officials and detainees," said Husham al-Suhail, an official in Iraq's Human Rights Ministry. "We are sure that there are violations in these prisons, but not so serious. The investigation is still underway."
A spokesman for interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi declined to comment.
Human Rights Watch said it interviewed 90 detainees in Iraq, of whom 72 claimed to have been tortured or abused.
"The majority of the detainees to whom Human Rights Watch spoke said that torture and ill-treatment under interrogation was routine," the report said.
"Some also said that the police also used violence against them at the time of arrest"
In London, the Foreign Office said it welcomed the report and would study it.
"The UK government condemns all forms of abuse, whoever the perpetrators. We have raised the issue of conditions in Iraqi detention facilities with the Iraqi government and will continue to do so in the future," the Foreign Office told AP.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
