09 May 2004	Sunday	18 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

PARIS, May 8: Iraq's former human rights minister Abdul Basset Turki said abuses of Iraqi prisoners had been going on at all US bases since the occupation began, with some taking place as recently as last week.

In an interview with French weekly Le Journal de Dimanche released before publication on Sunday, Mr Turki said he had warned US administrator Paul Bremer of the abuse in November.

"The first reports I received concerned the city of Umm Qasr, the detention zone at Baghdad airport, and finally the prison at Abu Ghraib. But there was torture at all the American bases," he told the newspaper.

"I have information about further abuses committed against prisoners just this week," he said, but did not elaborate.

Basset Turki, who resigned one month ago over US military action in Fallujah, said he had quickly understood that Mr Bremer "did not have the power to ask the military to change its methods".

"If he had had more power over them, I believe things would not have got out of hand like this," he said..-Reuters