Two years after the abuse by US soldiers of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq first came to light, accountability for what turns out to have been a widespread pattern of mistreatment at several detention sites, including torture and eight homicides, remains elusive, according to a new report released by three major human rights groups in US on Wednesday.

“By the Numbers: Findings of the Detainee Abuse and Accountability Project” says that at least 330 credible cases of abuse involving 600 US personnel and 460 alleged victims have been reported in Afghanistan, Iraq and at the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since late 2001. So far, however, only 40 troops have been given prison terms. Moreover, only three officers have been convicted in court martials for their part in detainee abuse, and none under the doctrine of command responsibility, a principle incorporated into US military law that provides that a superior is responsible for the criminal acts of subordinates if he or she knew or should have known of them and failed to prevent them or punish those responsible.

The report found that 20 civilians, including officers of the Central Intelligence Agency, have been referred to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution for detainee abuse. But to date, the department has failed to indict a single CIA official.

The 27-page report, which was compiled by the Detainee Abuse and Accountability Project (DAA), a joint initiative of the New York University Centre, Human Rights First and Human Rights Watch, comes amid a simmering debate over recent demands by half a dozen retired generals for the resignation of Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, who explicitly authorised the use of interrogation techniques that constitute torture or inhumane treatment. Also, perhaps the Pentagon was expected to formally charge Lt Col Steven Jordan, the former head of the interrogation centre at Abu Ghraib, with dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming an officer for his role in the abuse. If so, he would be the highest-ranking officer at Abu Ghraib to face a court martial for the prison abuses.

The DAA report found credible reports of more than 1,000 individual criminal acts of abuse on which the 330 cases were based. At least two-thirds of the total number of cases took place in Iraq; at least 60 in Afghanistan; and 50 at Guantanamo. Of the 330 cases, 120 were either unresolved or went uninvestigated, according to the report.

The report also cites cases regarding the detention and alleged beatings and abuse of women and in January 2004 of four Iraqi employees of Reuters and NBC.

The 210 cases in which investigations appear to have taken place involved at

least 410 personnel, 95 per cent of whom were enlisted soldiers, according to the report. One hundred sixty cases — involving a total of 260 personnel — appear to have ended without any action being taken against the accused.

The report renewed long-standing appeals for Congress to appoint an independent commission to review US detention and interrogation policies and operations and to require each branch of the military to certify that any officer whose promotion requires Senate confirmation has not been implicated in any case of detainee abuse either directly or through the doctrine of command responsibility. — IPS