US/IRAQ: US military doctors working in Iraq collaborated with interrogators in the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, an article in the prestigious British medical publication the Lancet said yesterday.
Prof Steven Miles, the report's author, cites evidence that some doctors falsified death certificates to cover up killings and hid evidence of beatings.
"The medical system collaborated with designing and implementing psychologically and physically coercive interrogations," the University of Minnesota professor said.
One detainee, who collapsed after a beating, was revived by medics so that the abuse could continue, Prof Miles said.
"Army officials stated that a physician and a psychiatrist helped design, approve and monitor interrogations at Abu Ghraib," he wrote in his study.
The report is based on evidence from US congressional hearings, sworn statements of detainees and soldiers, medical journal accounts and aid agency information.
Even though knowledge of torture and degrading treatment at the jail was widespread and known to medical staff, they did not report abuses before an official inquiry began last January.
Reports of abuse at the prison first came to light at the end of April when photographs of naked Iraqi detainees being humiliated and maltreated by US troops drew worldwide condemnation.
"Government documents show that the US military medical system failed to protect detainees' human rights, sometimes collaborated with interrogators or abusive guards, and failed to properly report injuries and deaths caused by beatings," he said.
Other human rights violations include failure to maintain medical records, conduct routine medical examinations and provide proper care of disabled or injured detainees.
Prof Miles called for a reform of military medicine and an official investigation into the role medical personnel played in the torture scandal.
The US government has launched several investigations into the abuse scandal.
On Wednesday, United States defence officials said one US army report, which is expected to be sent to Congress next week, clears top US military brass in Iraq of abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib.
But it implicates 20 or more intelligence troops in the scandal.