Iraq won't use Abu Ghraib after US quits jail

BAGHDAD, Mar 10 (Reuters) Abu Ghraib prison, a symbol of terror for Iraqis under Saddam Hussein which later became notorious for the abuse of prisoners by US guards, is to be turned into a warehouse, Iraq's justice minister said today.

In a surprise announcement, the US military yesterday said it planned to end its operations at the prison. Some US officials suggested Iraqi authorities might continue to use it as a jail.

But Justice Minister Abd al-Hussein Shandel told Reuters: ''There will be no detainees in Abu Ghraib. It will just be used as a storage facility for the Justice Ministry.'' The US military said 4,500 inmates held at Abu Ghraib on suspicion of insurgent activity would be transferred to a new site at the nearby airport in two to three months.

International and Iraqi human rights groups today said they would seek access to the new facility to see under what conditions prisoners were being held.

Abu Ghraib until recently also held 2,400 common criminals under the control of the Justice Ministry. Shandel said these had already been transferred to other sites.

Abu Ghraib, a torture centre under Saddam, gained global notoriety in 2004 when photographs were published showing US soldiers abusing prisoners, some naked or threatened with snarling dogs.

SECURITY REASONS Shandel said the decision to close the prison had been taken for ''security reasons''.

Situated in the Baghdad suburb of the same name, a bastion of Sunni Arab insurgents, the compound includes the original 1960s, British-built jail and a surrounding tented camp that has sprung up under US control. It has come under regular guerrilla attack.

In April 2005 dozens of insurgents launched a brazen raid on the prison, detonating two suicide car bombs and firing rocket-propelled grenades that wounded 44 U.S. soldiers.

The bulk of inmates are minority Sunni Arabs, the dominant community under Saddam, who are accused of backing an insurgency against US forces and the new, Shi'ite-led government.

The move to close the prison comes as Washington presses Iraqi leaders to form a coalition government that includes Sunnis in the hope of undermining support for the insurgency.

Ramadi resident Bahaa Sameer, whose father and two brothers are held at Abu Ghraib, said: ''We are worried about them. We hold the government responsible for their safety and health. We need to know to which prison they will be taken to.'' The Iraqi government has called on the US military to release many of the 14,500 security detainees it holds.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which has accused the US military of using tactics ''tantamount to torture'' in the jail, said it should be allowed to visit prisoners in the new detention centre.

ICRC spokeswoman Dorothea Krimitsas declined to comment directly on the decision to close the jail, but said: ''If they are transferred to another place where we could have access to them, that would be very good news.'' She said ICRC experts had been unable to visit Abu Ghraib since January 2005 because the Baghdad area was too dangerous.

Iraqis greeted the news of the prison's closure with cynicism.

''They can't erase what they did simply by moving to other prisons, said Abdul Rahman al-Mashhadani, head of Iraq's Hammurabi rights group, ''and I don't think we will be allowed to visit the new prisons and report the violations there.'' Baghdad resident Abdul Wahaab was equally pessimistic. ''The Americans will close Abu Ghraib and open three more prisons instead,'' he said.

REUTERS KD KN2158