As POW Camp Fills, Iraqi Relatives Wait in Anguish

As Iraqi military and paramilitary units have retreated into major cities and donned civilian clothes, U.S. and British troops have been forced to detain a wider range of men who might be combatants, adding to the ranks of the giant prison camp in this port city.

This collection point and interrogation center, the largest such allied facility in the country, already has some 3,000 prisoners and has a capacity for 15,000.

British administrators insist that the complex adheres strictly to all international rules governing the treatment of prisoners. That was not much solace Monday to dozens of Iraqi women and a few men waiting outside who hadn’t seen their husbands, brothers or friends for days and, in most cases, insisted that their loved ones were innocent.

Many of them found the lack of information particularly frustrating as they wondered whether their missing relatives were even inside, whether they were being mistreated and what the intentions were of this occupying army, with its unfamiliar customs and procedures. Many Iraqis’ sole experience with prisoner issues has been in the context of Saddam Hussein’s regime, under which prisoners frequently disappear.

The nature of this war has greatly affected the prisoner-of-war system as well. With Iraqi irregulars and soldiers mixing with the civilian population, U.S. and British troops have detained some men based on their appearance and the likelihood they could be members of the Iraqi military or senior figures in the ruling Baath Party.

The likelihood that this war could drag on longer than expected also places a higher premium on intelligence, giving the allies an incentive to cast a wider net for detainees. Also, a significant number of Iraqis have turned themselves in to escape the fighting or, in some cases, to receive food, water and medical care.

Outside the camp, the waiting women and men paced, fretted and cried as the midday sun hit the mid-90s over the barbed wire and sand berm marking the perimeter.

Aroub Shalash Karim, 23, a lawyer, was almost hysterical as she described how allied soldiers took away her father with a bag over his head. Hanan Elwan Khalaf, 23, said soldiers destroyed their possessions and almost set fire to the house before arresting her 60-year-old father and two brothers. And Rasmia Hamid said they took her son -- whose only crime, she insisted, was trying to get some water from an aid vehicle.

“British soldiers five days ago broke down our metal door and came at us with machine guns,” said Rathya Mohamed, 49, as desert dirt mixed with tears to form muddy streaks on her distraught face. “They took my husband and my son away at 4 in the morning. He’s not a Baath Party member, just a civilian. They searched everything, stepped on my Koran, tore open flower pots. I’m terrified.”

Some of the women said troops took prisoners based at times on information from Iraqis with questionable motives. Walaa Muhagar, 20, said soldiers entered his house with an informer who hid his face behind a gas mask.

“Is this liberation or occupation?” said Muhagar, whose brother was identified by the masked man as a suspect. “Anyone who doesn’t like you can turn you in for money or a grudge. The British can easily be manipulated.”

Virtually all the women said their missing relatives had been sleeping, driving, collecting water or doing other innocuous tasks when detained. Their claims could not be verified.

A few admitted that their loved ones were members of the Baath Party but had signed up only out of necessity.

“My husband is a Baath member, but he’s not high up,” said Samira Lafty Ali, 40. “Everyone in Iraq is in the Baath. If you’re not, you can’t get a job.”

Lt. Toby Smart, a member of the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment charged with guarding the center, said it’s understandable that many of those outside the gate are almost panicked.

“People are scared for their lives and families,” he said. “We’re trying to be as helpful as we can be, but there are too many people.”

Under the Geneva Convention, the job of notifying relatives and answering their queries falls to the International Committee of the Red Cross, whose representatives inspected the center Monday.

The Red Cross has not yet set up a clearinghouse in Iraq, however, given the lack of security, which leaves Iraqis with no place to turn to for information on relatives.

Another concern, some military officials said, is that guarding large numbers of prisoners pulls coalition soldiers away from fighting.

Outside the center, which has come under fire from mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, a sign marked “Prisoner of War Collection Point” advises newly arriving POWs in English and Arabic to stand in line, submit to a search and to place their weapons and explosives in designated areas.

A few prisoners trickled out Monday and were mobbed by the women for information. Ghasan Adlan, a 27-year-old taxi driver, said he was detained for 11 days for walking up to a checkpoint after getting jammed in traffic behind it.

Maj. Rachel Grimes, a British officer with the POW Handling Organization, said prisoners are streaming in from allied units that have different ideas about who is potentially dangerous. That makes separating those who represent a threat from those who don’t a priority, she said.

“In the fog of war, it’s inevitable that mistakes are made,” she said. “Someone recently captured a 70-year-old Bedouin farmer, so we quickly got him out of here. Yesterday, someone else came in with Parkinson’s disease who clearly should not be here, so we let him go.”

Grimes said she could not comment on allegations by some relatives of prisoners that arrests were made in a brutal or insensitive fashion.

“But I don’t think that’s the way the British army operates,” she said.

Prisoners are moved from checkpoints and battle sites to staging areas and then onto buses for the trip to the POW center. They sleep 200 to a tent, which gives each about 2 square yards of space.

Adlan, the taxi driver, said he was angry at being detained but wasn’t treated badly. His sudden disappearance without notification must have left his family worried sick, he said.

“It’s nice to be out,” he said. “I’m going to go home, take it easy, relax. I don’t even want to listen to the radio. It’s too stressful.”