92 per cent of Iraqi detainees suffer psychological illness: survey

Apr 22, 2010, 10:31 GMT

Baghdad - Some 92 per cent of Iraqi former detainees suffer from psychological illness, a study released Thursday found.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Mosul, also painted a grim picture of the effects detentions have on families and former prisoners in the troubled northern city and its environs.

Researcher Mohammed Mahmoud said that in 82 per cent of cases, children of detainees' performance at school suffered because they attended classes irregularly and lacked supervision of their studies at home.

In 56 per cent of families where a member was detained, the family lost its main breadwinner. In 44 per cent of such families, children were forced to care for their siblings or adult relatives, the study concluded.

The study found that more than 9 out of 10 former detainees suffered from psychological disorders.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq said in its most recent report on human rights that it had received widespread complaints of abuse in Iraqi jails.

The New York-based watchdog Human Rights Watch in February concluded that 'torture and ill-treatment remain a serious problem in Iraqi detention facilities and jails.'

Further, 'government-run detention facilities struggle to accommodate the large number of detainees, and serious delays in the judicial review of detention has exacerbated overcrowding. Some detainees have spent years in custody without charge or trial,' Human Rights Watch concluded.

Most media attention on detentions in Mosul has focused on the hundreds of suspected insurgents police there say they have detained in the last year.

Mahmoud called on police to stop arresting citizens without warrants in night raids, and to compensate former detainees never found guilty of a crime.