Abu Ghraib reborn with new name but haunted by bitter memories
The spot where US soldiers forced naked Iraqis to form a human pyramid now smells of fresh paint and disinfectant. The prison wing where hundreds more were executed during Saddam Hussein's regime is silent and empty, but for a few desks and documents that stand testament to his sadism.
There are signs of new beginnings at the reborn Abu Ghraib jail as it prepares to open its doors again to prisoners; there are greenhouses under construction, a rehabilitated sports yard, a barber shop - even beehives. But the ghosts of an infamous past are never far away throughout the whitewashed, 10-acre block on the western outskirts of Baghdad. Five years after Abu Ghraib entered the global lexicon it is, to many Iraqis, still a site of degradation and a forbidding reminder of the American occupation.
This month, Abu Ghraib will receive inmates, many from the two US detention centres in Iraq - Camp Cropper and Camp Bucca - that this year are handing over detainees at rates unparalleled in the six years since the invading US army captured its first detainee. In keeping with the spirit of renewal, the jail is to be renamed Baghdad Central Prison.
Read entire article at Observer (UK)
There are signs of new beginnings at the reborn Abu Ghraib jail as it prepares to open its doors again to prisoners; there are greenhouses under construction, a rehabilitated sports yard, a barber shop - even beehives. But the ghosts of an infamous past are never far away throughout the whitewashed, 10-acre block on the western outskirts of Baghdad. Five years after Abu Ghraib entered the global lexicon it is, to many Iraqis, still a site of degradation and a forbidding reminder of the American occupation.
This month, Abu Ghraib will receive inmates, many from the two US detention centres in Iraq - Camp Cropper and Camp Bucca - that this year are handing over detainees at rates unparalleled in the six years since the invading US army captured its first detainee. In keeping with the spirit of renewal, the jail is to be renamed Baghdad Central Prison.