A recent report charges US Army medical personnel with torturing detainees, writes Anayat Durrani In a leading British medical journal, an American professor charged United States military medical personnel of being complicit in the abuse of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and called for a full review and investigation of personnel at these facilities. Published in the Lancet on Friday, the article was written by Dr Steven Miles, a professor at the Centre for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis. In his report, Miles said that his review of government documents revealed that medical staff "failed to protect detainees' human rights, sometimes collaborated with interrogators or abusive guards and failed to properly report injuries or deaths caused by beatings". He said that an inquiry was in order that could result in a shakeup of military medicine. "When the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal became public, I was puzzled by why the medics and physicians attending to the detainees had not reported the abuses, since they must have either witnessed abuse or seen evidence of the injuries," Miles told Al-Ahram Weekly. "As reliable documents have become available, I was able to piece together a broader picture," he said. Miles' findings were based on press reports, US congressional testimony, sworn statements of detainees and soldiers, human rights organisations' information and medical journal accounts. In his review of documents he found medical staff failed to maintain medical records, conduct basic medical examinations or adequately care for disabled or injured detainees. According to the report, doctors at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib Prison falsified death certificates to hide killings, hid evidence of beatings and allowed misleading information released by military authorities to go unchallenged. Miles mentioned the case of Iraqi Major General Mowhoush, who died after his head was forced into a sleeping bag and interrogators sat on his chest. A doctor said he died of natural causes but months later a death certificate released by the Pentagon stated his death was a homicide by asphyxia. Miles wrote that the medical system was influential in the design and implementation of the interrogations. "Army officials stated that a physician and a psychiatrist helped design, approve and monitor interrogations at Abu Ghraib," Miles said. In one case, medical staff revived a prisoner who had collapsed after a beating so he could be further tortured. He cited the case of an Iraqi man taken into custody by US troops who was found by his family months later in an Iraqi hospital. "He was comatose, had three skull fractures, a severe thumb fracture and burns on the bottoms of his feet," Miles said. The man's American medical report showed that he had suffered a heart attack brought on by heat stroke, which in turn caused the coma, but his medical report failed to mention the injuries. In response US Army Lieutenant Colonel Joe Richard said the Defense Department takes "strong exception" to the report's allegations and to "Miles' wholesale indictment" of US military medical personnel and the care administered to prisoners in Iraq. Richard rejected the charges, saying there was no evidence to support them and called the report "carefully selected media reports and excerpted Capitol Hill testimony and not firsthand investigative work or accounts". He added that an ongoing investigation was underway and that if it finds evidence of guilt, "those responsible will be held accountable." The Pentagon said they were "unaware" of any incidents where medical personnel did not provide medical care to injured detainees and added that "superior care and treatment" was given by US military medical personnel to save Iraqi lives. "The Pentagon may not be aware [of what was going on] but they collect depositions describing the events that I described in the paper. The medical system in the detention centres was completely inadequate according to both Taguba and the Army Inspector General's investigation," Miles told the Weekly. "For example, they were not creating detainee medical cards, conducting tuberculosis screening or carrying out the monthly health checks. Given the inadequacy of the health care and the nature of prisons, it is impossible that there was no medical neglect. In addition, according to Red Cross estimates, 70 to 90 per cent of the detainees were innocent and not insurgents or terrorists." Major General Antonio Taguba's investigation that began in late January 2004 found blatant abuses of detainees at Abu Ghraib by American military guards and officers. The Army's Inspector General, Lieutenant General Paul Mikolashek's investigation, which followed, found that poor training and inexperienced interrogators led to abuse that was perpetrated by a few individuals. Miles said that while various abuses were occurring at Abu Ghraib before the January 2004 army investigation, no military medical personnel reported abuse, degradation or signs of torture despite the obvious evidence. Miles told the Weekly that he believes Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld should announce and enforce an ethical code of conduct for the medical staff of military detention facilities as has been advocated by human rights organisations. "However, I believe that it is time for all prisons, especially for detainees at high risk of being subject to human rights abuses -- those in countries with a record of abuses -- and all POWs to have mandatory regular inspections by a fully funded international humanitarian organisation," Miles said. He has called for an independent comprehensive investigation into the prisoner abuse scandal, including investigation into the involvement of medical personnel. "The US military medical services, human rights groups, legal and medical academics and health professional associations should jointly and comprehensively review this material in light of US and international law, medical ethics, the military code of justice, military training, the system for handling reports of human rights abuses and standards for the treatment of detainees," Miles said. "Reforms stemming from such an inquiry could yet create a valuable legacy from the ruins of Abu Ghraib," he said. Another report is expected to be released this week detailing a US Army investigation that began in April 2004, headed by Major General George Fay. The report addresses the participation of military intelligence troops in the abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib. The Fay report, parts of which have been leaked to the press, criticises senior commanders for failing to pay attention to signs of abuse and for faulty leadership, which is believed to have exacerbated the situation. The report calls for disciplinary measures against up to two- dozen military intelligence officers, but not against any senior military personnel. Critics have already called the report a cover-up to protect senior military and civilian figures in the Pentagon. Seven National Guard military police have so far been charged in connection with the Abu Ghraib scandal.
