By SCHEHEREZADE FARAMARZI
Associated Press Writer
NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - Dhia al-Shweiri spent several stints in Baghdad's
notorious Abu Ghraib prison, twice under Saddam Hussein's rule and once
under American. He prefers Saddam's torture to the humiliation of being
stripped naked by his American guards, he said Sunday in an interview with
The Associated Press.
America's top general, Gen. Richard Myers, said Sunday there was no
evidence of ``systematic abuse'' and the actions of ``just a handful''
have unfairly tainted all American forces.
However, Amnesty International said it has uncovered a ``pattern of
torture'' of Iraqi prisoners by coalition troops, and called for an
independent investigation into the claims of abuse.
The 30-year-old al-Shweiri, who used to work in a fabric shop, is a
die-hard fighter in the al-Mahdi Army, the fanatic militia of a Shiite
Muslim cleric who has vowed to take on the Americans.
Al-Shweiri said that while jailed by Saddam's regime, he was
electrocuted, beaten and hung from the ceiling with his hands tied behind
his back.
``But that's better than the humiliation of being stripped naked,'' he
said. ``Shoot me here,'' he added, pointing between his eyes, ``but don't
do this to us.''
For months, human rights groups and former prisoners had complained of
mistreatment at detention centers but their protests were widely dismissed
as politically motivated until the U.S. command started an investigation
in January. Six American soldiers are now facing courts-martial.
The allegations exploded onto the world stage this past week after CBS'
``60 Minutes II'' broadcast images allegedly showing Iraqis stripped
naked, hooded and being tormented by their U.S. captors.
An internal U.S. Army report found that Iraqi detainees were subjected
to ``sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses,'' according to The New
Yorker magazine.
On Saturday, Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper published a front-page
picture of a British soldier apparently urinating on a hooded prisoner.
The newspaper said it had been given the pictures by serving soldiers from
the Queen's Lancashire Regiment.
Dan Senor, spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority, said the
U.S. investigation will be full and aggressive. ``Careers will be ended
and criminal charges are going to be leveled,'' Senor said on CNN.
Al-Shweiri said he was not surprised to see TV images of smiling U.S.
soldiers posing by naked, hooded inmates who, in one photograph, were
piled in a human pyramid.
Al-Shweiri, who was arrested by the Americans in October, said he was
asked to take off his clothes only once and for about 15 minutes.
``I thought they wanted me to change into the red prison uniform, so I
took off my clothes, down to my underwear. Then he asked me to take off my
underwear. I started arguing with him but in the end he made me take off
my underwear,'' said al-Shweiri, who was too embarrassed to go into too
much detail.
He said he and six other prisoners - all hooded - had to face the wall
and bend over a little as they put their hands on the wall.
``They made us stand in a way that I am ashamed to describe. They came
to look at us as we stood there. They knew this would humiliate us,'' he
said, adding that he was not sodomized.
``They were trying to humiliate us, break our pride. We are men. It's
OK if they beat me. Beatings don't hurt us, it's just a blow. But no one
would want their manhood to be shattered,'' he said.
``They wanted us to feel as though we were women, the way women feel
and this is the worst insult, to feel like a woman,'' al-Shweiri said.
Al-Shweiri's account could not be independently verified.
He said the Americans arrested him along with his father and brother in
the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City in Baghdad, accusing him of belonging
to the al-Mahdi Army because he had an automatic weapon in his house and
some headbands with Islamic sayings on them. His father and brother were
released shortly after the arrest.
Al-Shweiri insisted he wasn't involved in any religious or political
group at the time. He worked in a fabric shop in Sadr City, attending
Friday prayer sermons at his neighborhood mosque.
He said he felt gratitude to the Americans for toppling Saddam, who had
barred many Shiite public gatherings and whose regime arrested al-Shweiri
twice.
The first time came 12 years ago, when he was held for 19 months. He
was arrested again in 1999 and sentenced to life in prison, charged with
belonging to the then-banned Islamic al-Dawa Party, he said. He was freed
when Saddam pardoned prisoners at the end of the same year.
``I hated Saddam so much that when the Americans came, I viewed them as
liberators. I was happy and supported them. But soon it became clear that
they are no liberators but occupiers,'' he said. ``I had seen how
oppressed people were under Saddam and I refused to give in to oppression
and injustice. We must fight oppression.''
When al-Shweiri left American detention, he said his hatred for Saddam
was replaced with one for America and two months ago he joined the
al-Mahdi Army of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Now with the future of the al-Mahdi Army uncertain, many militiamen are
worried. The Americans have demanded the militia be disbanded and that
al-Sadr, who is accused of involvement in the death of a rival cleric,
turn himself in.
``If Seyed Muqtada orders us to disband, we will. If he orders us to
die, we will die. And if he tells us to live, we will live. We have
nothing to do with the Americans and what they demand from us,''
al-Shweiri said.
