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Blackanthem Military News
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Last Updated:
Aug 21, 2008 - 7:13:55 AM |
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Blackanthem Military News
 BAGHDAD, Iraq - More than 10,000 detainees have been released from Coalition detention facilities in Iraq this year, since implementation of programs designed to better prepare detainees for reintegration into society and to reduce recidivism.
"A recent innovation is to have a social worker and an Islamic cleric counsel detainees before they go before their first Multi-National Forces Review Committee (MNFRC), said Rear Adm. Garland Wright, commander of Task Force 134 Detainee Operations in Baghdad. "Also, last February we started having officers from the Multi-National Corps-Iraq division or capturing unit sit on our MNFRC boards."
MNFRC Boards were instituted last August as part of several agreements Multi-National Force - Iraq has with the Government of Iraq regarding detainee operations. After an individual is detained, his or her case is heard by the MNFRC board within six months of being detained.
TF 134 also has instituted a number of religious, educational, and vocational programs since 2007 to enhance its reconciliation programs. According to Wright, "Engagement services are highly desired by the detainees. Most of the detainees have had a positive experience with the Islamic Discussion Program and the Level 1 education (Grades 1-3). We have witnessed many of the detainees returning from class and sharing notes and thoughts with their compound members."
General David H. Petraeus, commanding general of MNF-I, noted that "due to changes in the conduct of detainee operations and programs to prepare detainees for reintegration into society, we have not only gone over 10,000 releases, but our re-internment rate is less than 1 percent."
Coalition detention programs currently hold just under 21,000 detainees, approximately 17,000 at Camp Bucca near Basrah, and approximately 3,000 at Camp Cropper in Baghdad. There are about a dozen women, just over 300 juveniles, about 200 third country nationals, and about 200 detainees over the age of 60. More than 10,000 detainees have been released so far this year, more than the total from last year of 8,900. We are currently detaining about 30 a day and releasing 45 a day. The average detention time is 330 days.
Coalition Forces are authorized by U.N. Security Resolution 1790 and the Geneva Convention to detain individuals "necessary for imperative reasons of security." There is a detainee review process in place, which judges security risk, such that at any point in that process, detainees can be retained or released.
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