ABU GHRAIB: The International Committee of the Red Cross plans a new investigation of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the aid agency's chief said.
The ICRC wants to see for itself what improvements the US military has made at the prison near Baghdad in the wake of the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal, said its president, Mr Jakob Kellenberger, in an interview published today.
"We're going to inspect Abu Ghraib again," Mr Kellenberger told the weekly SonntagsZeitung.
"We started our visits in spring 2003 and since then we've seen gradual improvements. But in the past not all our demands have been met.
"The next visit will allow us to find out how things stand today," said Mr Kellenberger.
He did not give details of the planned visit.
ICRC spokesman Mr Eros Bosisio confirmed Mr Kellenberger's comments.
The neutral ICRC has faced calls to drop its policy of confidentiality in dealing with prisoners in Iraq, after the publication of a leaked Red Cross report to US authorities.
The report, published on May 7th in the Wall Street Journal, was a summary of the ICRC's attempts in person and in writing, from March to November 2003, to get US officials to stop abuses. Mr Kellenberger reiterated that the ICRC had not leaked the report and would not change its quiet approach, which it says is the best protection for victims of war.
The Red Cross pressure far preceded the Pentagon's decision to investigate after a low-ranking US soldier stepped forward in January.
The prisoner abuse erupted into an international scandal late last month after the publication of photographs showing US guards mistreating and humiliating detainees.
Mr Kellenberger also said the ICRC was keeping watch on a series of US army inquiries into prisoner deaths in Iraq. "We're following the situation," he said. "We expect the investigations to be detailed." So far, 30 deaths in custody have been subject to US army investigation, according to military officials.
Several have been attributed to natural or indeterminate causes. Eight were determined to be justifiable homicides by prison guards or other US personnel during four incidents, when prisoners became dangerously violent. Others are still under investigation by the army.
The ICRC was founded in 1863 to help the wounded and other victims of war. It has been designated by the Geneva Conventions to visit prisoners of war and civilian detainees caught up in conflicts.
Two weeks ago the Red Cross said it had given US authorities a report on treatment of prisoners held at the American naval base at Guantanamo Bay.
It has consistently refused to discuss the document, based on ICRC visits to the base in February and March, and declined to say whether it cited abuses similar to those in Iraq.
Released prisoners have claimed they suffered beatings and coerced confessions, but US officials deny this.
The ICRC has been visiting Guantanamo regularly since the arrival in January 2002 of the first of approximately 600 detainees. Most were captured in the war that ousted Afghanistan's Taliban in late 2001.