Gloom, despair on display at Iraqi women's prison - Watch a woman's plea for help from death row

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/05/10/damon.iraqprison

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The first sound you hear as your walk into the main women's prison in Iraq is a low murmur, the voices of the 162 women behind bars, all talking to one another. You can also hear the faint cries and laughter of children -- 16 of them in fact, all under the age of 4.

The prison has an almost surreal feel. The first floor is well-lit, filled with official offices and a medical room for the inmates. Pasted on the walls are drawings of women and children. In almost each picture, there's one or two teardrops on their faces.

The drawings are the work of a woman serving time for forgery. Asked which one is her favorite, she immediately points to a drawing that shows an older, brown-haired woman hugging a younger girl.

That's because the drawing is her lasting memory of tightly holding her 16-year-old daughter at the end of their last meeting. Her daughter was killed by insurgents shortly after she left the facility.

Report: Torture, unfair trials not uncommon

Everywhere we went, we heard the same complaints -- no legal representation, unfair trials -- views also expressed in a recent United Nations report that concluded Iraq's court system "consistently failed to meet minimum fair trial standards." (Watch a woman's plea for help from death row ) snip

The report, issued last month, found that torture of suspects is not uncommon, that courts don't meet fair trial standards and that the government is not fully investigating allegations of abuse. It also found that nearly 17,000 people in custody have been held "effectively without charge or trial."

[ismnotwasm]

1. Geez that's messed up

So very, very sad

[lazer47]

2. Don't it make you just feel so proud we sponsered this

"democracy" and it only took couple of hundred thousand innocent people to die for it.