IRAQ: Child prisoners left without support

[Fleshdancer]

:(

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/ca64c33eacedf89ee472af102b095b76.htm

BAGHDAD, 30 July (IRIN) - He isn't a criminal, but just the sight of a police officer terrifies 14-year-old Omar.

The boy was released last month from an Iraqi prison, after being detained there for more than seven months. "They arrested me because they said I was a suspect after a car bomb exploded in a road near my home and resulted in the killing of an American," Omar explains. He happened to be near the explosion and was arrested along with adult Iraqis suspected of the attack.

Omar was one of 450 detainees who were let out of the two Iraqi and US-run prisons on 27 June, under a national reconciliation plan aimed at bringing insurgents into the political process and ending the bloodshed in Iraq.

[knowbody0]

1. he better just learn to love us for our freedoms

:sarcasm:

[Fleshdancer]

3. yep. that little punk should know we're his liberators

and if he doesn't realize that, we'll just have to throw his small butt back in prison! :crazy:

[Solly Mack]

2. and yet this same war crime country, the U.S, is looked to by others

to help in the "peace" process between Israel and Lebanon.

Makes me feel the sham of it all more accutely...and that is sham...not shame.

[me b zola]

4. damn...

more from the article:

...
According to international human rights law, children who have been detained should be kept in a special place apart from adults, and should receive special treatment and for the minimum time possible. But in Iraq, some claim that children are detained more than two years in prisons with adults.

~snip~

"For sure there are cases of children who have committed serious crimes and even terrorism that promoted the killing of innocent people - but they are in special jails," Obaid said.

He said there were no children among the prisoners released by the government last month. Local groups such as the Prisoners' Association for Justice (PAJ), Relief for Innocent Children Victims of War (RICVW) and Campaign for Innocent Victims In Conflict (CIVIC) say differently.

"They do not want the issue to have international repercussions, so they release the adults in front of the cameras and the children behind it," said Farouk Saleh, spokesperson for RICVW.