WASHINGTON - A US military report released Thursday said six inmates died among dozens of substantiated cases of prisoner abuse in Iraq and at the Guantanamo Bay 'war on terror' detention camp but there was no indication that abuse orders came from top officers.
The report by Vice Admiral Albert Church said there were 71 proven cases of abuse involving 121 detainees -- including the six dead. It said about 130 other cases, including some which led to the deaths of prisoners, were being investigated.
But Church concluded there was no single reason for the physical abuse and sexual humiliation of inmates at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
"We found no evidence to support the notion that the office of the secretary of defense (or other military or White House staff) applied explicit pressure for intelligence or gave 'back channel' permission to forces in the field in Iraq or in Afghanistan" to exceed authorized interrogation practices, the report said.
Church said eight of the 71 cases were at Guantanamo Bay, where about 540 detainees are held. Most were taken prisoner in Afghanistan after the US offensive launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
But the reported added that most at Guantanamo were "relatively minor in their physical nature, although two of these involved unauthorized, sexually suggestive behaviour by interrogators, which raises problematic issues concerning cultural and religious sensitivities."
Three cases, including one death, were in Afghanistan and the remaining 60 cases, including five deaths, were in Iraq.
The report said that by the end of September, 2004, proceedings had been started against 115 soldiers for inflicting mistreatment and 36 had been ordered to face courts martial.
According to Church, who was to speak before Congress on Thursday, less than a third of the abuse cases were during interrogations. His report said that by the end of last September, 24,000 interrogations had been carried out at Guantanamo with only three substantiated cases of abuse.
Church insisted that the vast majority of detainees in US custody had been treated humanely.
03/10/2005 16:34 GMT