US to hand over Abu Ghraib prison to Iraqis
Source: The Guardian Online

American forces have agreed to hand over control of the infamous Abu Ghraib prison to the newly elected Iraqi authorities in an attempt to draw a line under one of the most shameful episodes of the Iraq war.

Iraq’s human rights minister, Bakhtiar Amin, yesterday told the Guardian that the US had agreed to the pullout at the four main detention facilities, including Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, the prison at the centre of the abuse and torture scandal. Two other locations in the centre of Iraq and a British run prison in the south will also be handed over to Iraqi control, although no deadline has been set, Mr Amin said.

He said he had requested the transfer of authority of the country’s prisons from Major General William Brandenburg, the US commander of detention facilities in Iraq. “We have discussed and asked that the detention centres be transferred to the Iraqis. They agreed to that,” the human rights minister said. “It is an important sign of Iraq’s new sovereignty that the new authorities take charge of its detainees and its detention facilities.”

The prison was at the centre of a political storm after revelations of mistreatment and torture of Iraqi inmates by their US guards. The scandal was exposed last April with the publication of photographs and video film showing US soldiers abusing naked Iraqis and forcing them to perform sex acts. The furore damaged the reputation of the US army and paved the way for the disclosure of other abuses of Iraqi detainees by foreign troops in Iraq, including by British soldiers in the largely Shia south.

Mr Amin, whose ministry monitors conditions in Iraq’s US-run penal facilities, said the transfer will begin after the formation of the new Iraqi government, which is due to happen in the next few weeks. [Text continued at site.]

It may not mean much to the prisoners, though. Later in the article the human rights minister “admitted there were no guarantees that Iraq’s burgeoning prison population would fare any better under Iraqi jurisdiction.” Still, letting Iraq handle Iraqi prisons seems to be a step in the right direction for those supporting the idea of Iraqi sovereignty. Hopefully it will be a step in the right direction for everyone else involved as well.