28 March 2012
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Italy &
Spain: Iraq torture sparks political controversy
The
publishing of photographs revealing the extent and seriousness
of torture suffered by Iraqi prisoners at the hands of US troops
in Abu Ghraib prison has sparked political controversy in Italy
and Spain, two of the countries whose governments originally
supported the US-UK intervention, although the Spanish position
changed after the Partido Socialista Obrero Español
(PSOE), led by José Luis Zapatero, came to power after
the general election held on 14 March.
In Italy, the images of the abuse inflicted on Iraqi prisoners
resulted in the centre-left opposition calling for the return
of Italian troops from Iraq, while it had previously been divided
as to whether to support or oppose Italian involvement. The crisis
also resulted in embarassment for the Italian government, which
immediately denied having any knowledge of what was occurring
in prisons in Iraq, although evidence that emerged from different
sources suggested otherwise. A press statement issued by the
Italian section of Amnesty International (AI) on 11 May 2004
claimed that the government did have knowledge about allegations
of torture in Iraq, because the foreign affairs undersecretary
Margherita Boniver replied to a parliamentary question on this
issue on 3 July 2003, saying that "in relation to the allegations
by Amnesty International about the conditions reserved for Iraqi
internees in the American base of Camp Cropper in Baghdad and
other detention centres in the country… the NGO itself has
contacted the U.S. authorities directly…, welcoming the
declarations made by the US army´s legal advisors and by
the Provisional Occupying Authority about wanting to rapidly
improve detention conditions in these establishments." AI
had sent a memorandum to Paul Bremer on 26 June 2003, and AI
Italy ha d issued a press statement four days later, saying that
"The conditions under which Iraqis are detained in Camp
Cropper and in the prison of Abu Ghraib may constitute cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, which is forbidden
by international law". Confirmation of these reports also
came from Pina Bruno, the wife of a carabiniere marshal
who died in Iraq, who claimed that her husband had repeatedly
told her of the inhuman conditions in which Iraqis were detained
in Nassiriya and from a carabinieri organisation (Unione
Nazionale dell'Arma dei Carabinieri, UNAC, see Statewatch
news online, June 2004) that posted photographs showing the
brutal treatment of prisoners in Nassiriya (the city that hosts
the headquarters of Italian forces in Iraq), thus proving that
Italian personnel, and authorities did know about such practices.
A carabinieri general, Paolo Spagnuolo, confirmed that
he knew about such practices, and had passed on information to
his superiors in Rome.
In Spain, political debate was heated since before the war started,
due to the Partido Popular (PP) government's belligerant
stance in support of the US position, which was opposed by all
the remaining political parties represented in parliament, and
by a vast segment of civil society, resulting in repeated and
massive demonstrations. The PP reacted angrily to its election
defeat in the wake of the Madrid bombings (see Statewatch
vol. 14 no. 2), which it blames on "misinformation"
and "defamation", in spite of substantial evidence
that it knowingly manipulated information to attribute the attack
to ETA rather than Al Q'aida. A series of veiled threats marked
statements issued from the two main parties in the run-up to
the European elections held in July. The PP candidate Jaime Mayor
Oreja, a former interior minister and the head of the party in
the Basque Country, threatened on 17 May to re-open the debate
on torture in Spain by the Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación
(GAL, death squads that targeted Basque activists, mainly in
the French Basque Country, between 1983 and 1987) if the PSOE
candidate José Borrell continued to talk of Iraq, and
of the torture suffered by Iraqi prisoners. The response from
the PSOE came from Juan Carlos Ibarra, the head of the government
in the autonomous region of Extremadura. Two days later, he said
that if Oreja wanted to talk about torture, the PSOE would have
to accept the challenge and talk about torture, from "today
as well as yesterday". In particular, he said they could
"talk about when Oreja was the government envoy in the Basque
Country" and "43 members of ETA were murdered",
and of his regulars week-end visits to see General Rodríguez
Galindo in Intxaurrondo Guardia Civil barracks (both the general,
who is serving a 75-year sentence, and the barracks were heavily
implicated in the GAL scandal) when he was the leader of the
opposition. He also mentioned the mass expulsion of a large number
of "blacks" who were repatriated after being sedated,
many of whom were allegedly killed once they were back in their
country. It seems remarkable that these serious allegations concerning
crimes committed by state authorities, by the two main parties
in the parliamentary spectrum, should be shrouded in secrecy
to be used for political gain.
El País, 18.5, 20.5.2004; L'Unità, 12.5.2004;
Repubblica, 12.5.2004; UNAC website: www.unionecarabinieri.it
; photographs published on the UNAC website: www.unionecarabinieri.it/speciali_detail.asp?id_spec=42
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