Ukrainians were ’’treated like dogs’’ in Abu Ghraib prison

Kiev. Two seamen recently freed from Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison have told the Ukrainian official responsible for securing their release that U.S. guards at the facility treated them like dogs’’, but much better than Iraqi prisoners.

Mykola Mazurenko and Ivan Soschenko, respectively the Ukrainian captain and first mate of the tanker ship Navstar-1, had been incarcerated at the facility near Baghdad since last October. They were found guilty by an Iraqi court of having attempted to smuggle 3,500 tonnes of diesel fuel from the country.

Ukrainian diplomatic efforts secured their release on June 16.

Nina Karpacheva, a Ukrainian legislator and chief ombudsman for the Kiev government, interviewed both sailors prior to their transfer to a detention facility in Kiev. As prisoners completing a sentence, they are not allowed to give interviews to the Ukrainian media.

Both described to Karpacheva and other Ukrainian officials widespread violent, demeaning, and apparently illegal behaviour by U.S. military guards at the prison, Karpacheva said.

’’It is clear their stay in the Iraqi prison was a truly horrible experience,’’ Karpacheva told UT-1 television.

Mazurenko and Soschenko were held in a communal cell built for some 20 inmates, but inhabited by more than 60 Iraqis detained on a variety of charges.

Their cellmates were a mix of former Iraqi military personnel, civilians suspected of anti-American activities and common criminals, the Cegodnya newspaper reported.

U.S. military warders regularly used tear gas ’’at the slightest provocation’’ to control the inmates. As a result of the crowded conditions, innocent prisoners repeatedly were gassed.

A official at the Lukianovsky prison in central Kiev told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that an initial medical examination of Mazurenko showed evidence of serious lung damage, which aggravated his asthma and placed increased stress on his heart.

Karpacheva said tear gas had injured Mazurenkos respiratory system so severely that while she interviewed him he ’’seemed to be trying to cough his lungs inside out’’.

Mazurenko also suffers from diabetes. During his stay at Abu Ghraib he complained of only having access to the minimum amount of insulin necessary to keep him alive. U.S. officials gave Mazurenko and Soschenko a weeks’ worth of medicine gratis on the day of their release. (DPA)

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