The head of the Washington office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who had urged the US government to take action over the prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq, has resigned for what he said were personal reasons.

Sources in the community of non-government groups that work with the Red Cross said they believed Christophe Girod was unhappy with his own organization and with the US government.

"My reading of it is that he felt they (the Red Cross) should have gone public with their report. He never told me he was quitting, but I think he was very upset about the situation," one source said.

Sources also said Girod came away dissatisfied from a meeting on the abuse issue with US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Earlier this month, a 24-page ICRC report was leaked to the media in which the Red Cross said the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers was "in some cases tantamount to torture."

The February report came to light days after the US media published graphic photographs showing US forces humiliating Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

The report raised questions over the ICRC's policy of neutrality and public silence over what it hears or sees about prisoners as a price for gaining access to jails in trouble spots around the world.

Asked whether he thought the ICRC had handled the prison scandal correctly by not speaking out earlier when it knew of the abuses, Girod declined comment. "I have nothing to say on the matter. This is not our policy to go public with internal matters and our relationship with detention powers," he said.

The ICRC, which complained repeatedly in private to US authorities over possible prison abuse, only reveals acts of torture or worse when faced with flagrant cruelty and when the authorities involved refuse to take action.

(China Daily May 19, 2004)