60,000 detained in Iraq: ICRC

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said yesterday that around 60,000 people are currently detained in Iraq.
"Today, there are some estimated 60,000 persons deprived of freedom and detained by the Iraqi authorities or the US-led coalition in different places all over Iraq," said Karl Matti, head of the Jordan-based Iraq delegation.
"The ICRC has access to part of them," said Matti, adding that the international relief agency also has access to "permanent places of detention" run by the coalition forces.
"The ICRC looks forward to sign soon an agreement with the Iraqi government granting general access to all places of detention. Negotiations are ongoing," he told a press conference in Amman.
Matti, who completed his two-and-a-half-year term as head of mission, said an ICRC delegation met last week with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, who "promised to help" the agency.
In May, the Geneva-based ICRC announced a massive increase in its aid operations in Iraq, and said the number of detainees held by US-led coalition forces in Iraq had shot up by 40 percent in a year to 17,000.
The agency carries out regular visits to check on detainees held in four coalition-run camps in Baghdad and southern Iraq as part of its overall relief effort in one of the world's most dangerous countries for relief workers.
"Iraq will remain a difficult context for the ICRC. Nevertheless, I am sure that the ICRC will do its utmost to come closer and closer to the Iraqi people," Matti said.