Dutch Troops Abused Iraqi Prisoners
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Courtesy Of: Yahoo News
From: The Associated Press
By Mike Cooper
Fri Nov 17, 2006

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Dutch military interrogators abused 15 Iraqi prisoners in 2003, dousing them with water to keep them awake and exposing them to loud sounds and strong lights, the government said Friday.

The allegation, first reported by a respected Dutch newspaper, shocked ranking government officials and led one opposition leader to compare it to the U.S. abuse of Iraqi prisoners in the scandal at Abu Ghraib' News News Photos Images Web' Abu Ghraib prison.

Defense Minister Henk Kamp told reporters that military police had investigated the use of these tactics by military intelligence officers in Iraq' News News Photos Images Web' Iraq in 2003 and found they did not overstep the law.

But after a Cabinet meeting, he announced there would be a new, independent inquiry. "It would be good to have an independent look at it," Kamp said.

Before Kamp's announcement, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende told the national broadcaster NOS that "if this is true, it is shocking" and said the accusations must be investigated.

The report by De Volkskrant, a left-leaning daily, was published five days before national elections, which Balkenende's center-right Christian Democratic Appeal is favored to win.

Opposition Labor Party leader Wouter Bos said the report could damage the Netherlands' reputation. "It's dumbfounding, it goes against all the rules and definitely human dignity," he said.

"And what's also a shame is that the smell of a cover-up is gradually getting very strong here, because this apparently happened in 2003. (But) we're hearing about it just now," he said, comparing the alleged abuses to those at Abu Ghraib.

Femke Halsema, leader of the minority Green Left opposition party, said the allegations appeared to have been covered up by officials in the military and demanded parliament be recalled so lawmakers can question the defense minister.

Jan Hoedeman, the reporter who wrote the story, denied its release was timed to influence the elections. "When a story's ready, it's ready," he said. "We have no agenda other than a news agenda."

De Volkskrant, or "People's Newspaper," which bills itself as "progressive and change-oriented," said the prisoner abuse happened when Dutch troops were stationed in Iraq's Muthana province.

The Netherlands had about 1,400 troops stationed in the southern province until their withdrawal last year. There are currently 15 Dutch soldiers still serving in Baghdad, training Iraqi forces.

According to De Volkskrant, the interrogations were carried out by members of the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service in November 2003 in buildings of the Coalition Provisional Authority in the town of Samawah, on the Euphrates River about 230 miles southeast of Baghdad.

Prisoners were forced to wear darkened goggles then exposed to bright lights when the goggles were removed, De Volkskrant reported. They also were kept awake for long periods by being doused with water or subjected to high-pitched noises.

Defense Ministry spokesman Joop Veen was quoted as telling De Volkskrant that "things happened that did not go according to instructions."

The commander of Dutch troops in the province reported the incidents to Dutch military police, according to the report. There was an internal investigation, the newspaper said, but there were apparently no prosecutions linked to the abuse and the matter was never made public.

In Britain, an ongoing court-martial of seven soldiers is the nation's most significant military trial since World War II. The soldiers are accused of mistreating detainees in Iraq in September 2003.

The Dutch prime minister originally sent troops to Iraq in August 2003, but would not extend their deployment despite pressure from Washington and London, because of widespread public opposition.
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Associated Press reporter Toby Sterling in Amsterdam contributed to this story.

Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061117/ap_on_re_eu/netherlands_iraq_prisoner_abuse