RECENTLY the world was treated to a most despicable spectacle of human degradation and moral depravity through the pictures depicting the brutalisation of Iraqi prisoners held at the notorious Abu Gharib prison, bythe US forces.

Those that brought these appalling pictures of torture and depravity to light, by way of these photographs, deserve our thanks. But for their efforts, the world would have been totally unaware of the inhuman treatments meted out by the US-British captors on the Iraqi prisoners. These pictures have confirmed something that was a common apprehension in the minds of many.

One has difficulty in coping with the fact that these acts have been perpetrated by soldiers of a country which prides in vaunting its love for human rights, while picking on other nations that they consider lacking respect for the same.

While it is easy to explain away the whole episode as, 'actions of the few tarnishing image of the many,' it nonetheless demonstrates the low level of depravity that the occupation forces have stooped to, and the disdain they hold for those they are supposed to have delivered from an oppressive regime. And that all these happened without the knowledge of the local commander, if we are to take her words as true, expose the abysmal lack of control of subordinates bythe superiorofficers.

While the charges are being examined by the military equivalent of a grand jury, and six senior US officers have already been reprimanded, a transparent trial of those that are responsible forsuch acts, is in order. It is necessary, not only for the sake of justice but also for retrieving whatever is left of the US-British coalition image in Iraq.