Rights group says Newsweek incident overshadowing other Koran abuses

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Rights group says Newsweek incident overshadowing other Koran abuses

May 19, 2005 09:17:00 am

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] warned Wednesday that the outcry over a retracted Newsweek story [JURIST report] about religious abuse at Guantanamo is overshadowing genuine incidents where US personnel at the base intentionally offended the religious beliefs of Muslim detainees and desecrated the Koran. The group argued that the violent outrage over the story would not have been so strong if it weren't for the US government's "extensive" abuse and failure to investigate incidents. AFP has more. The International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC website] also says it documented similar abuse [Chicago Tribune report] of the Muslim holy book at Guantanamo Bay in 2002 and 2003.

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