Vatican paper says Iraq abuse stories belie work of 'great democracy'

Published: 2004-05-06

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers represented an "unequivocal and inadmissible contrast with the principles of a great democracy," the Vatican newspaper said. The front-page report May 6 in L'Osservatore Romano, under the headline "Man was disfigured," was the first Vatican comment on the scandal over revelation of alleged torture and abuse of Iraqi captives at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. "The detailed revelations about the torture -- in some cases deadly -- inflicted on prisoners by forces engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan are affecting world public opinion and especially public opinion in the United States," the newspaper said. Beyond global criticisms, it said, "it is precisely the U.S. people who have been most wounded in learning that this disfigurement of the human person, represented by torture, could be perpetrated under its flag." It said the photos of the Iraqi prisoners, "humiliated physically and morally in order to weaken their resistance to interrogators," have rightly triggered widespread indignation.

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