Commissions clear Dutch officers of Iraq abuse

THE HAGUE, June 19 (Reuters) Dutch military investigators used cold water and noise to interrogate prisoners in Iraq in 2003 but two independent commissions found this did not constitute abuse.

In November, the Dutch daily Volkskrant reported that intelligence officers had abused dozens of prisoners by hosing them with water and blasting them with noise during heavy-handed interrogations. Dutch politicians drew parallels with the abuse by US soldiers at the Iraqi Abu Ghraib prison.

An independent investigative commission was set up after the newspaper report, led by former politician Joop van den Berg. An independent commission that supervises the Dutch intelligence and security services started a separate investigation.

''Based on jurisprudence of the European Human Rights Court the commission concludes that there was no torturing or inhumane or humiliating treatment of detainees by the Counter-Intelligence and Security team,'' the intelligence supervisory commission said in its report yesterday.

However the commission's chairwoman Irene Michiels van Kessenich-Hoogendam told a news conference yesterday the treatment of the detainees had not been ''decent''.

Dutch soldiers were part of the Stabilisation Force in Iraq from August 2003 until March 2005.

The first Dutch contingent was based in the Iraqi southern province of Al Muthanna from Aug. 1, 2003 to Nov 15 2003.

During that period Dutch intelligence service interrogated eight detainees, the Van den Berg commission said. The prisoners were held in a building in the centre of the city of As Samawah, where the unit had its headquarters.

The Van den Berg commission said ''rather small quantities'' of cold water were used to keep prisoners awake during interrogations at night. ''The water was not used to put prisoners under pressure,'' it said, adding that noise was only used to prevent prisoners from communicating with each other.

The treatment of one Iraqi prisoner could be regarded as humiliating under the European Treaty for Human Rights, the commission said.

''Both commissions come to the conclusion that Dutch military officers did not abuse prisoners,'' Defence Minister Eimert van Middelkoop wrote in a letter to parliament, adding that he considered abuse or torture to be causing ''serious pain or serious suffering''.

Both commissions said they did not find any evidence that electrodes were used during questioning but added that they could not rule it out.

Van Middelkoop said the Justice Ministry had made both reports available to the public prosecutor, who would decide whether to launch a criminal investigation.

REUTERS RJ RK0840