Chinese, Iraqi INS Prisoners in Brief Brawl

A fracas this week between Iraqi and Chinese prisoners at the sheriff’s Mira Loma jail has raised the ire of a London-based Iraqi group.

A sheriff’s spokesman said the Iraqi and Chinese inmates--who are prisoners of the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service--engaged in a one-minute fight Wednesday about access to telephones in the barracks.

No one was seriously hurt, though nine participants were treated for bumps, bruises or scratches, said Bill Strassberger, a spokesman for the INS, which rents the detention space from the county Sheriff’s Department.

The two groups were subsequently moved to separate barracks as a precaution.

Niels Frenzen, attorney for six of the Iraqis, said a group of about eight Iraqis was attacked by as many as 40 Chinese inmates, who pummeled them with punches and kicks. The motivation for the attack was unclear, Frenzen said, though there had been some disagreement about telephone use.

The Iraqi National Congress, a London-based group, expressed concern about an attack on several of its members, Frenzen said. Justice Department officials in Washington were also alerted.

The case of six of the Iraqis has become an international cause celebre. The six say they are opponents of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and deserve political asylum, but U.S. authorities have held them for almost two years as possible secret agents of the Iraqi dictator. The day before the melee, a camera crew from the CBS program “60 Minutes” was in Lancaster interviewing the six.