Promised Release of Iraqis Creates Chaos, Anger at U.S. Outside Prison

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Hundreds of Iraqis waited for hours outside a Baghdad prison Thursday in hopes their relatives would be included in a much-publicized release. About 80 men were freed, but U.S. officials said they weren't part of the amnesty, and most Iraqi families left disappointed and angry at America. "Liars! Liars! They won't let them out!" one woman screamed in dismay before fainting. A coalition spokesman insisted the prisoner release was on track, but would be done quietly for reasons of "security and privacy."

U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer announced Wednesday that U.S. occupation forces would free 506 of some 12,800 Iraqi detainees. The first 100 were to be released Thursday from Abu Ghraib prison, where Saddam Hussein's regime tortured and murdered its opponents, Bremer said.

Bremer said the amnesty was a conciliatory gesture as the United States seeks to win goodwill. Other coalition officials said they hoped it would encourage more people to come forward with intelligence tips.

However, instead of generating goodwill for the coalition, the entire exercise appeared to have the opposite effect.

Rank	Location	Receipts	Donors/Avg	Freepers/Avg	Monthlies
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Chaos as US frees fewer Iraqis than promised

Released men driven past relatives and the press

Luke Harding in Baghdad
Friday January 9, 2004
The Guardian (UK)

The problem was that nobody knew who was getting out. Eight hours after relatives arrived outside Abu Ghraib soon after dawn yesterday, the prison doors swung open. The US's top official in Iraq, Paul Bremer, had promised that 100 of the 9,000 Iraqi prisoners currently in US custody would be let out. In the end, only about 60 detainees emerged from what the Americans now call Baghdad central penitentiary.

The prisoners were driven out in two open trucks. They waved and smiled. To the horror of the waiting families the trucks kept going - a deliberate strategy - to whisk the detainees away from the press.

Since invading Iraq the US military has taken thousands of Iraqis prisoner. Many of those released have complained that US soldiers tortured and abused them. Yesterday the US authorities appeared to be doing their utmost to avoid embarrassing publicity - dumping the prisoners a mile away under a bridge.

"I'm very happy to be free," Kamal Risaeya, 32, shouted, an identification tag still dangling from his leg. "I'm just looking forward to seeing my family." Mr Risaeya said US troops had arrested him five months ago in Tikrit. They had treated him well, he added. Others were less forgiving. "I'm free, but now I will attack them," another man, who declined to give his name, said bitterly.

Inevitably, the day ended in disappointment for the vast majority of relatives, who chased after the trucks in a cavalcade of battered VWs and camper vans. Most got lost. It was shambolic stuff - with several women holding photographs of their loved ones breaking down in tears, when it became clear that they had not been let out.

Earlier, other relatives complained that the Americans had abducted their family members for no reason. Farid al-Juburi said his uncle, Awaed, had been looking after his sheep in the desert when US soldiers arrived. "He's a shepherd. He had parked his car on a hill. The troops surrounded him. The car rolled backwards. My uncle ran to put a stone under the wheel. The Americans arrested him. That was three months ago."

Mr Juburi had showed off the clean dish-dash, or shirt, he had brought for his uncle, who disappeared into the American penal system on October 19 last year. It soon emerged, though, that Awaed Kadif al-Juburi had not been let out.

"This is a new kind of oppression. Where are the human rights the Americans talk about? Where is the freedom they promised us? Where is the democracy?" he asked. "I could understand if he was breaking the law. But he wasn't." He went on: "He was never a Ba'athist. He's spent all of his time in the desert looking after the sheep."

The prisoners released yesterday are the first batch of some 500 low-level security prisoners the US military plans to release soon. Many of the 9,000 detainees still behind bars have been rounded up in raids and are suspected of carrying outinsurgent activities against US and coalition troops.

But hundreds of others were detained merely for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Mahmud Hamid said US troops arrested his brother Owda after raiding his house in Falluja, at the heart of Iraq's resistance. "My brother offered to let them in with a key. But they insisted on kicking the door down. They didn't find anything. But they took him away anyway. He has three children. They are very miserable. I feel extremely angry."

There was also confusion as to whether the released prisoners had anything to do with Wednesday's amnesty. "This has nothing to do with Bremer's announcement," Lt Col Roy Shere, a spokesman for the US brigade said.

Under Saddam Hussein, Abu Ghraib prison in west Baghdad was a centre for torture. But families were at least allowed to visit relatives, Iraqis pointed out yesterday.

Mr Juburi said that the American civil affairs unit had handed him a letter that gave him permission to visit his uncle. Unfortunately, however, whenever he showed it at the prison's front gate American troops shooed him away. "I've been here 20 times. So far they haven't let me in," he said.

The release of innocent detainees has been the top demand of Iraq's tribal leaders and of the US-picked Iraqi governing council. So far, though, the overwhelming majority of prisoners remain behind bars.

Karim Mohammed, who was arrested with his brother but released 10 days ago, said many Iraqis were now using the Americans to settle scores. "Anyone who wants to get his own back just goes to the Americans and reports that person as a resistance fighter."

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