Mass detentions and ‘democracy’, Iraq

AFP reported yesterday that,

    US and Iraqi forces are holding a record 17,000 men and women — most without being formally charged — and those in Iraqi-controlled jails live often in deplorable conditions.
    About two-thirds are locked up as “security detainees” without any formal charges in US-run facilities, Lieutenant Colonel Guy Rudisill, the US military spokesman for Iraqi detention operations, told AFP.
    The rest are incarcerated in Iraqi-run jails in conditions that fall well below any international standard and are in dire need of reform, said Bakhtiar Amin, Iraq’s outgoing human rights minister.

(By the way, we shouldn’t assume from the first para above that those being held by the US forces are being held in acceptable conditions…)
The report quotes Amin as saying that, “There are currently 6,504 inmates in Iraq’s 18 prisons, 2,573 of whom have already been sentenced,” and explaining that that number includes both “common criminals” and “terrorists.”
Amin also said that the British troops are detaining 27 people. (An interesting low figure, that; most likely linked to the British forces’ markedly different approach to the whole politics of trying to run the occupation. Also, maybe showing they learned some useful lessons from Northern Ireland? See below.)
My reading of the report is (from Rudesill) that none of those detained by the Americans have actually been convicted of any crime, but are still only suspects. (In international law, that is the most common meaning of the term “detainee”, as opposed to “convict” or “prisoner.)
That means that from the 17,000 people being held by US, UK, and Iraqi forces, only the mentioned 2,573 have been sentenced. That means that 14,400 Iraqis are being forcibly held with trial.
This is absolutely no way to build a democracy.

    Our local paper here in Charlottesville, Virginia, today reported on a conference in town attended by John Alderdice, until recently the speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly and described as a key negotiator of the Good Friday Agreement, which provided the political framework for peace in Northern Ireland. Alderdice was quoted as saying:

14 thoughts on “Mass detentions and ‘democracy’, Iraq”

  3. Many people made the point that the aim of the Abu Ghraib-“abuses” was to forcibly recruit informants who inform about the “resistance”.
    The growing number of detainees could indicate two things:
    a. The US-forces have still no cloud.
    b. Because the intensity of “questioning” is now lower, the extensity has to rise.
    As to Al-Sadr and Basra: I am in no way an expert in this field (to be honest I am an expert in no field). But as much as I know an islamistic movement consists of three social forces: the islamistic intellectuals, the pious bourgeoisie and landlords, and the working class, which, because of the high unempoymentrate, has a great contingent of “Lumpenproletariat”.
    The development of a given islamistic movenment is dependant on the dialectics of this three components.
    As much as I can see there are case-models until now:
    a) Iran: the islamistic revolution wins. The islamistic upperclass comes to dominance. The loewerclass-activists become moralguards and can harass rich people and are therefore silenced.
    b) Libanon & Palestina: a state of national emergency. All factions must work together and with the rest of the population.
    c) Egypt and Algeria: All three factions get together strong, but at a specific point the powers in beeing begin a repression. The three factions are different is bearing repression because of their class. So they get split and loose, the upperclass section assignin, the other two sections, because they loose their grip to society, resot to terrorism.
    So what does this mean to iraq and al-sadr? As long as the sadrist are not in the position to deveop a coherent economic programm for their contituion they end like their brethren in iran.

  4. Sorry, i meant of course: “So what does this mean to iraq and al-sadr? As long as the sadrist are not in the position to deveop a coherent economic programm for their social base they end like their brethren in iran.

  6. Jon, thanks for that link. It looks like a very well-organized piece there. I think the present-day practices certainly already are illegal and constitute a grave breach of the laws of war, i.e. a war crime. But who will authoritatively make that judgment? The only avenue open for authoritative judgment, given US opposition to the ICC was (until recently) through an ICJ ruling on infractions of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic representation — on the grounds that foreign nationals held at Gitmo (or possibly elsewhere if US juridiction cd be established) wer being denied access to consular counsel and services… But last month, the Bush administration “handily” withdrew from its previous agreement that its compliance under Vienna would be adjudicated through the ICJ. That was over a separate issue (death penalty in texas, involving one or more Mexican nationals, as it happened). But the impetus to escape from ICJ adjudication on Vienna compliance was evidently much broader than that…

  7. Helena,
    Glad you found the link helpful. Trouble with it is its one more long piece that I tell myself it is my ‘duty’ to read. You know what i mean? The ‘duty’ sheet is becoming very long indeed. But anyway….I think the point this article heralds is that down the road perhaps someone, perhaps many people, are going to have a civil remedy against the people that did this, and are doing this. That is my legal take on this….precedent, albeit, not in the strict sense, will be on the side of those who bring the action.

  8. A couple of groups, the ACLU being one of them I believe, have already intitiated civil proceedings on behalf of some of the Bush administration’s torture victims.

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