Vatican newspaper condemns 'inhuman acts of torture' by U.S. soldiers

Published: 2004-05-10

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican newspaper expressed new condemnation of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers, saying that "inhuman acts of torture" had violated the dignity of inmates. In its May 10 edition, L'Osservatore Romano commented on the widely published photo showing a U.S. soldier holding a naked Iraqi detainee on a leash. Of all the images that have been released, this one is the most "tragically symbolic" because it shows a desire to treat the enemy almost as an animal, it said. The second-page commentary was the third time in a week the newspaper voiced strong criticism about the alleged torture and abuse of Iraqi captives at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. Under the front-page headline, "Horror and shame," on May 8, the newspaper said the war in Iraq, already marked by destruction and pain, "now assumes even more tragic connotations with the discovery of inhuman acts of torture inflicted on Iraqi detainees."

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