Refugees Tell of Brutal Treatment by Kuwaitis : Human rights: Palestinians and others say they were tortured at army-run jails, dumped at the Iraq border.

The Kuwaiti military has dumped hundreds of people, arrested since liberation two weeks ago, on Iraq’s border, and several said they had been tortured and brutally beaten by Kuwaiti troops in a secret prison.

U.S. military police say three to four buses and trucks have arrived daily for at least four days, dropping Palestinians, Jordanians, North Africans and Iraqis at this desolate border crossing.

Many were badly bruised, and at least two men required hospitalization, the Americans said. When one busload of men arrived here, a Kuwaiti soldier beat them with an iron rod as they disembarked, one American said.

“It’s the Kuwaiti army, no question,” he said. “They have the weapons, the uniforms and the patches.”

A truck driven by a uniformed Kuwaiti soldier dropped 25 people here Tuesday afternoon, including an unconscious 28-year-old Moroccan man identified as Aziz Mulai.

His arms were cut and badly bruised, and blood was caked on his face. His emaciated body shivered uncontrollably. Three friends said he had been unconscious for four days after Kuwaiti soldiers hung him by his feet and tortured him with electric wires.

U.S. Army medics, who took him away in a military ambulance, said he also had a concussion and appeared to have been hit in the forehead.

His companions--a Palestinian, a Sudanese and an Algerian--said that Kuwaiti troops or resistance fighters had arrested them shortly after the Iraqis fled on Feb. 25 and accused them of collaborating with the occupation army.

In separate interviews, all three said they were imprisoned and tortured by uniformed Kuwaiti soldiers in a government building or school in the Farwaniya district of Kuwait city. They said the building had blackboards and a large conference room, but they could not identify it.

“There’s a special room for beating,” said Abdul Kade Bahkadem, 31, the Algerian, who had worked as a truck driver in Kuwait. “It’s full of hair and blood.”

He said the chief torturer was a Kuwaiti army captain. “We used to call (him) ‘Al Wahsh’ ” (Arabic for “the Savage”), Bahkadem said.

The three men said they saw one Palestinian and two Sudanese die after they were pistol-whipped three days ago in their crowded cell, which held 109 people.

Some prisoners were in their 60s, they said. Others, including at least three women, were being held in other cells, they said. All were being beaten or tortured, they said.

“This morning, my friend is still in torture,” said Bahkadem. He identified the man as Salah Ali Doudi, a Jordanian living in Kuwait.

The three men said a uniformed U.S. military doctor, known as “Abu Willie,” visited the cell every second or third night to treat the injured, but they said the Kuwaitis hid the most seriously hurt under a large conference table.

“I complained to the doctor because of the beating,” said Ismael Adam Othman, 28, the Sudanese, who had been a farm worker in Kuwait. “But the director of the prison came and threatened us more, and the beatings increased.”

Jihad Ahmed Mahmoud, 20, the Palestinian, who was born in Kuwait, said he spent five months in an Iraqi prison until freed 11 days ago. But he said Kuwaiti soldiers arrested and imprisoned him four days later when he tried to return home.

“Every morning, one (soldier) pulls my hair back, and the other slaps me with a boot,” he said. “In the afternoon, they would come with an electric cable and keep hitting me until it breaks.”

Unconfirmed reports of executions, beatings and torture of Palestinians and other non-Kuwaitis have circulated widely since mass arrests began in the city’s large Palestinian quarter. The Times reported last week that at least two Palestinians were shot to death and five hospitalized with injuries from apparent beatings by soldiers in Kuwait city.

The border accounts appear the most credible confirmation of government involvement in such brutality. Blatant Kuwaiti human rights violations, similar to those committed by Iraq, would complicate relations between Kuwait and the U.S.-led allied coalition as the tiny emirate is struggling to recover from the war.

At a press conference last Thursday, Kuwait’s prime minister, Crown Prince Saad al Abdullah al Sabah, flatly denied that his government was unlawfully holding or torturing people arrested after the cease-fire.

“It is being alleged that the Palestinians residing in Kuwait have been subjected to and are being subjected to torture by Kuwaitis,” Saad said in response to a question. “I would like to make clear and put on the record: I deny all such rumors. And I would like you not to believe whatever is being rumored in such a direction.”

The prince said that only a “small number” of Palestinians were detained on suspicion of “committing crimes against our people” during the Iraqi occupation. He said they will be released or transferred to courts for prosecution after investigations are completed.

“I would like to assure everybody that the rule of law will prevail and it will apply to everybody without discrimination,” the prince added.

He urged journalists to notify him if they uncovered proof of reprisals or death squads. “And then give me the evidence and see what our security agencies can do,” he said.

At the border Tuesday, Bahkadem, the Algerian, said he was arrested at his home in the Jleeb al Shuyoukh district early on Feb. 26. Barefoot like his companions, he wore a bloodstained shirt and a yellow headband that he said was used to blindfold him in interrogations. There were rope burns on his wrists and burns on his fingers that he said were from electric wires.

“They tell me, ‘You have helped the Iraqi military; you have worked with them,’ ” he said. “It is not true.”

Othman, the Sudanese, said he was arrested on the street on Feb. 26. He said he was first interrogated for three days at the Rabiah police station and was beaten with sticks and cables.

After he was moved to Farwaniya, he said, two soldiers forced him to lie face-down. “They put a rod on the center of my back and one soldier stood on each end,” he said, showing black marks across his back.

Later, he said, his arms were outstretched and tied, then electric torture was applied to his arms, chest and groin.

“They wanted me to confess,” he said. “I have nothing to confess. Then they put electric wire on my penis. I fell unconscious.”

The three filthy, gaunt-looking men said they were given one glass of water a day and leftover rice from soldiers once every two to three days. No water was available for washing, they said.

They said their second-floor cell held mostly Palestinians, but there were also Algerians, Moroccans, Sudanese, Jordanians, two Yemenis, one Somali and one Tunisian there. Several Iraqis and stateless Kuwaiti Bedouins were also held, they said.

Many Kuwaitis have provided detailed accounts of how some of the city’s 180,000 Palestinians helped Iraqi’s secret police during their seven-month occupation, including leading them to resistance fighters and pointing them to hidden loot.

Mahmoud, the Palestinian, said he was arrested Oct. 23 by Iraqi troops in Kuwait city and accused of having improper identity papers. He said the Iraqis hung him by his feet for a week in a prison in Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city.

Released by Iraqi resistance fighters March 2, he was arrested again by Kuwaitis four days later at a checkpoint near Jahra, north of Kuwait city, as he tried to return home.

“I had no papers,” Mahmoud said. “My passport stayed in prison in Basra.”

He said he was blindfolded and his hands were tied with white plastic cord most of the time. “When they would bring bread, I would hold it between my knees and eat it with my face,” he said.

The three said they were told Tuesday morning that they would be released. They were called out of the crowded conference room, loaded on a truck with 22 others and driven to the border.

“They just said you have no passport, you have come illegally and you must leave,” Mahmoud said.

As the sun set Tuesday, the three men huddled against the cold wind on a concrete border marker near the U.S. military police. They said they couldn’t go back to Kuwait and were terrified of going to Iraq.

“What can we do?” asked Bahkadem. “They took my passport. I have no money. I have no paper. I don’t even have shoes.”

Some of the prisoners have taken refuge in bombed-out or abandoned homes nearby. The American troops who guard the border said they can only offer food and emergency medical care when the buses and trucks unload.