Vile degradation of prisoners must be stopped
The Universe
(July 18, 2004)
The recent D-Day remembrance services brought back historical footage of the horrors of war and the torture of allied prisoners. Most people believe that only the enemy did horrible things to prisoners of war.
But we have since learned that the W.W.II allies committed atrocities, too, and abused prisoners. Although the enemy was far worse and more inhumanly vindictive than the allied armies.
Everything was justified as acts of war and terrible circumstances that drove men to act in inhuman ways.
Sadly, little has changed and we must continue opposing and speaking against human rights violations and every act of abuse. The African atrocities and war crimes that mutilated women and children and the massacres in Bosnia of thousands of innocent civilians that have yet gone unpunished are a depressing indictment of human nature and the complicity of officials.
The shocking revelations of abuse, humiliation and torture of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison and other U.S. military camps is repulsive degrading and the highest authorities must be held accountable.
Most of the 5000 Iraqis were picked up at random by American forces and many are innocent of any crime according to an insider source reported by the The Guardian yet they suffered incredible abuse and torture in U.S. detention.
It may never have been known if not for the digital cameras for which the abusers were only too happy to poise with their victims.
What is so deeply worrisome is the low IQ of the jailers. They appear to be cruel inhumane and sexually depraved. The repulsive photographic evidence shows naked prisoners surrounded by attack dogs and others stripped naked piled on top of each other as if performing unnatural sexual acts. Another photograph shows a naked male prisoner being pulled with a chain around his neck by a female US soldier. Nothing could be so devastating for a pious Muslim man.
What kind of depraved people would do this? The people being tried for these crimes claim they were ordered by officers to “soften up” the prisoners for interrogation. Top U.S. Military commanders behind this disgraceful behavior and their subordinates saw nothing amiss in this blatant violation of the Geneva conventions.
The Red Cross director knew about
the abuses months previously but said nothing publicly. A secret report
said that the treatment of prisoners was “tantamount to torture”. The
British Defence Minister did not read the report and failed to see that
British troops violated the law by hooding captives.
Nothing can ever justify mental or physical torture of another human being. We have to opposite it, everywhere, everyday.
Fr. Shay Cullen is a Columban missionary: PREDA Centre, Kalaklan, Olongapo City. www.preda.org
