Printed from: https://archive.cmf.org.uk/news/?id=3
A professor at the University of Minnesota has added fuel to the scandal about Abu-Ghraib prison in Iraq by highlighting evidence of United States medical personnel complying with demands for prisoners to be tortured.
Steven Miles, writing a damning report in the medical journal the Lancet, stated that there are reliably confirmed reports about inmates being subject to burns, shocks, asphyxiation and other physical methods of interrogation. He goes on to say that even US government documents have proved that medical care of the detainees was insufficient in many cases. His article states that failure to report injuries or deaths properly occurred, as well as doctors abetting abusive guards.
The Bush administration has consistently adopted a policy that confers no Geneva Convention protection to al-Qaeda or Taliban prisoners, as the groups were not national signatories to these principles of human rights. However it maintains that its armed forces will uphold the principles of Geneva wherever possible.
The US Pentagon has flatly rejected any suggestions of inappropriate behaviour by any of the medical staff at Abu Ghraib, whilst slamming Miles’ report for being ‘inaccurate in how medical personnel performed their duties and upheld their obligations’. In a separate editorial in the same issue of the Lancet, the journal urges any doctors who have been involved in such incidents to come clean, and to give a complete account of events at military compounds where terrorist prisoners are being held. (Lancet 2004;364:9435, bbc.co.uk 2004; 20 August)
Source: Lancet 2004;364:9435, bbc.co.uk 2004; 20 AugustSteven Fouch (CMF Head of Communications) 020 7234 9668
Alistair Thompson on 07970 162 225
Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF) was founded in 1949 and is an interdenominational organisation with over 5,000 doctors, 900medical and nursing students and 300 nurses and midwives as members in all branches of medicine, nursing and midwifery. A registered charity, it is linked to over 100 similar bodies in other countries throughout the world.
CMF exists to unite Christian healthcare professionals to pursue the highest ethical standards in Christian and professional life and to increase faith in Christ and acceptance of his ethical teaching.
