FORMER PRISONER RECOUNT STORY OF ABUSE.O__O


BAGHDAD, Iraq - When American soldiers released him from Abu Ghraib prison in December, Hashem Mohsen Lazim chose to stay silent about what had happened to him there.

He didn't tell his wife about standing naked and simulating sex acts with another inmate while a female American soldier laughed and sang songs. He didn't tell his mother about crawling on his hands and knees, also naked, while a male soldier rode him like a horse.

And he didn't tell his friends about being stacked into a pyramid with six other detainees, and forced to do it over and over again until their bodies stopped tumbling into a heap on the concrete floor.

"Who on earth would believe me?" Lazim said yesterday at his ramshackle house on the edge of Sadr City, the enormous slum on the eastern edge of Baghdad.After photographs of the abuse were broadcast worldwide, Lazim broke his silence. He says he is one of the prisoners seen in the photos wearing a hood and forced to perform acts now acknowledged by American officials as degrading and sadistic.

Lazim's story of mistreatment cannot be verified in every detail. But his release papers show he was imprisoned at Abu Ghraib when the documented abuses occurred, October to December of last year, and his story closely matches that of another inmate, Hayder Sabbar Abd, who has also spoken publicly about his ordeal and has recognized soldiers in the photos.

"I was the first to welcome the Americans when they arrived," said Lazim, who is 34 and sold used tires on the street before the war. Since his release, he has joined the Iraqi police. "What they did to me is not human. The people who did this cannot be Americans."Other former prisoners tell stories that are no less harrowing. A 28-year-old man who asked that he be identified only as Abu Anmar said he was pulled from his bed in the village of Baquba, an hour's drive northeast of Baghdad, on Jan. 5, stripped naked and hauled off to a nearby jail. He was accused of being a member of Saddam Hussein's militia, the Fedayeen.

Abu Anmar showed a reporter his release papers from Abu Ghraib and his prison identification bracelet, which also had his photo. Army officials confirmed that Abu Anmar had been imprisoned at Abu Ghraib.The abuse that Abu Anmar said he suffered began long before he reached Abu Ghraib. He was hooded and shoved into a concrete wall after his arrest, he said, and then was whipped on his bare back. He said he had to be hospitalized when he was brought to a detention facility at Baghdad's airport.

Abu Anmar and Lazim offer a glimpse into the mostly hidden conditions that at least some Iraqi prisoners have endured since the United States toppled Saddam Hussein's regime.

Abu Anmar wasn't subjected to the same abuse that Lazim said he experienced. The two men were held at Abu Ghraib at different times, but each man tells of living in tents policed by guards who punished people harshly for slight infractions.

Lazim and Abu Anmar said the American-run detention camp at Baghdad's airport gave prisoners clean linens, fresh food and prompt medical attention. Both men condemned Abu Ghraib for what they said were assaults on human dignity.

Nick . 5:35 AM ...................