In the same vein, the grand reopening in February of the scandal-ridden Abu Ghraib prison, now renamed the Baghdad Central Prison, has been met with skepticism. Iraqi authorities have promised that the Baghdad Central Prison will offer “decent conditions for inmates - including a gym, computer chatroom and hair salon.” The Baghdad Central Prison now houses 3,500 inmates, with plans to increase capacity to hold 15,000 prisoners by the end of 2009. But despite this attempt to draw a line under the past, average Iraqis - and many in the rest of the world - feel that a fresh coat of paint cannot erase the memories of those graphic images of the sinister incidents which took place in 2004 at the hands of a small group of US soldiers, who may or may not have been acting on orders from above. Rasool says that the mere mention of prison sends shivers up his spine. “No matter what the case of the prisoners, when you mention any prison, I shiver. It hurts all over,” he says. “I hope that the community will act so as to prevent the mistreatment of political prisoners in the future.” “I have sympathy for those who get caught because of their political beliefs. If they have a different way of thinking, they should be dealt with through dialogue - not torture,” said Ashgayi. Human chattel. Back in the 1980s, when Saddam Hussein reigned supreme, uppity Kurds were rounded up like chattel by Ba’athist intelligence servicemen, to stand trial at the Revolutionary Court of Iraq. The Mukhabarat (Iraq’s former state security agency) captured Azez Sabir Abdulla, 40, in September 1985 while at his home in Erbil. It came as no surprise to him, or anybody who knew him, as he had been a Peshmerga whose activities were closely monitored for some time.

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