UN concern over Iraq mass arrests

The UN says many Iraqis are held for "imperative reasons of security"

The United Nations mission in Iraq (Unami) has expressed concern over mass arrests by US-led coalition troops "without adequate judicial oversight".

In a report, the mission called for immediate action, saying the number of such inmates was rising.

It said data by the Iraqi ministry of human rights last month showed that 11,559 out of 23,394 detainees were held by coalition troops.

The US military says Iraqi inmates are having their cases promptly reviewed.

It says all the necessary steps are being taken either through referral to Iraqi courts or through a special US-Iraqi prisoner board set up in 2004 to speed up the review of individual cases.

There is an urgent need to provide remedy to lengthy internment for reasons of security without adequate judicial oversight UN report

In a separate development, two former Iraqi detainees said they were repeatedly tortured and humiliated by US soldiers in 2003.

Thahee Sabbar and Sherzad Khalid told ABC News that at one point the soldiers threatened to throw them "inside the cage with the lions in it" and also carried out a mock execution.

The two former prisoners and six other Iraqi men - with help from the American Civil Liberties Union and the group Human Rights First - are suing Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top officials.

US Army spokesman Paul Boyce said earlier this week he had never heard of lions being used in any detainee operations by the military over the past three years, the Associated Press news agency reported.

"We take every allegation of detainee abuse seriously," Mr Boyce said.

Standards 'violated'

The latest report by the UN mission covered the period from 1 September to 31 October 2005.

It said that "the overall number of detainees continued to increase due to mass arrests carried out during security and military operations" in Iraq.

The report said "the vast majority" of those held were individuals picked up by the US-led forces for "imperative reasons of security". It said that the US-Iraqi board was reviewing up to 250 cases a week, "resulting in some releases".

But it said the board's standards violated both Iraqi and international laws governing the treatment of civilians.

"There is an urgent need to provide remedy to lengthy internment for reasons of security without adequate judicial oversight," the report said.

The UN has repeatedly expressed concerns about the large number of detainees being held in Iraq without apparent due process.

It has also alleged that thousands are being kept in custody for long periods without charges.