IRAQ: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said yesterday it had repeatedly urged the US to take "corrective action" at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, which is at the centre of a scandal over prisoner abuse.
The humanitarian agency, mandated under international treaties to visit detainees, has had regular access to the prison since US-led forces began using it last year, according to chief spokeswoman Ms Antonella Notari.
"The ICRC, aware of the situation, and based on its findings, has repeatedly asked the US authorities to take corrective action," she said. Ms Notari declined to give details of what the ICRC had seen during the visits, which take place every five to six weeks, or about its reports to the US authorities.
The ICRC has also visited thousands of prisoners under the control of US and British forces, which are also being investigated after a British newspaper published pictures of a soldier allegedly urinating on an Iraqi detainee. But Ms Notari declined to comment on what officials had seen in British-run jails.
Under the Geneva Conventions, the ICRC must be allowed to interview detainees in private and on a regular basis.
The agency has also carried out two visits to Saddam Hussein, who is being held somewhere in Iraq since his capture by US troops shortly before Christmas.