Pentagon issues medical staff rules on prisoners

[cynatnite]

WASHINGTON, June 16 (Reuters) - Military doctors and other medical staff must follow new guidelines announced on Thursday by the Pentagon amid allegations by human rights activists that health care personnel were complicit in detainee abuse.

The guidelines grew out of earlier Pentagon investigations into physical abuse and sexual humiliation of prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq, said William Winkenwerder, assistant defense secretary for health affairs.

He would not say whether the new guidelines were an acknowledgment of improper actions by medical personnel, citing a Pentagon review that has not been completed.

That assessment so far has found "a very, very small number of reports of observation of possible abuse" by U.S. military medical personnel, Winkenwerder said without giving details.

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