oldiers knew of Iraqi torture, soldier claims
A Danish soldier stationed in Iraq told public broadcaster DR yesterday evening that soldiers there knew prisoners they had taken and turned over to the Americans and the Iraqi police could be tortured and killed.
On DR’s ‘21 Søndag’ programme, the anonymous soldier confirmed much of the information regarding military prisoners in Iraq that was included in the nearly 400,000 US military logs recently made public by free press organisation Wikileaks.
The Wikileaks documents also indicate that a large number of interpreters were systematically tortured and executed, including two working with Danish soldiers.
Based on the documents, Information newspaper determined that in the years 2004 and 2005 alone, Danish forces in Iraq ‘participated in the capture of at least 95 people, of whom 62 were referred to the Iraqi authorities’.
The newspaper points out that number is in sharp contrast to the figure of 21 presented by the Defence Ministry to parliament.
The Liberal-Conservative government has continually denied that it knew anything about prisoners being tortured, but both the Wikileaks information and statements from the anonymous soldier to DR seem to suggest otherwise.
Neither the defence minister nor the prime minister has commented publicly on the new allegations.
Oct. 25, 2010