LONDON - Britain released a dossier yesterday on what it called the systematic rape, torture, gassing and execution of Iraqis by Saddam Hussein's regime.
The document listed what it said were Hussein's favored methods of torture.
They included gouging eyes; piercing victims' hands with an electric drill; extinguishing cigarettes on victims; conducting mock executions; hanging people from the ceiling; administering electric shocks; sexually abusing victims; beating people on the soles of their feet; and bathing victims in acid.
The 23-page document, and a graphic video that was played at a Foreign Office briefing and made available to television stations, was seen as a move to win public support for action against Iraq. Its release comes just six days before a United Nations deadline for Iraq to declare all its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons or face "serious consequences."
This is the latest of many dossiers on Iraq that Britain has issued in cooperation with Washington, the document being compiled from intelligence reports from both countries.
In answering questions at a news conference, a senior Foreign Office official said, "This dossier itself is not attempting to provide a justification for military action." But the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the findings were linked with efforts to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction.
"There is a connection in at least two respects," he said. "The first is the historical record, where weapons of mass destruction were used, particularly in northern Iraq, in order to suppress opposition to Saddam's regime.
"There is a second sense in which there is a strong connection. That is the psychological sense. These weapons are still there, and they are available for use against opposition."
In a speech yesterday to the Atlantic Partnership, a group that works on improving relations between Europe and North America, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that the dossier "makes for harrowing reading" and that the abuses it listed were part of a deliberate policy.
"The aim is to remind the world that the abuses of the Iraqi regime extend far beyond its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction in violation of its international obligations," Straw said.
Straw, however, was accused by Amnesty International of a "cold and calculated manipulation" of the human rights situation in Iraq to help the case for possible military action against Baghdad. The United States and Britain have warned that they are ready to act with military force should Iraq fail to meet the demands of the U.N. Security Council.
"Let us not forget that these same governments turned a blind eye to Amnesty International's reports of widespread human rights violations in Iraq before the gulf war," said the organization's secretary general, Irene Khan.
Appearing at the Foreign Office presentation was Hussain Al-Shahristani, the former head of Iraq's nuclear energy agency, who was jailed in Iraq for 11 years because he refused to participate in a program to develop nuclear energy for military purposes.
Hussain said he was held in solitary confinement for most of that time, but he could hear the cries of young children being tortured in adjacent rooms.
Hussain also questioned whether the U.N. inspections would succeed in turning up weapons. "Saddam is the master at hiding, concealing and moving around weapons," he said.
Hussain said he doubted whether scientists working in Iraq's weapons program would be able to take up the United Nations' offer to leave the country with their families to testify about what they know.
"They were all forced against their will to take part, but they will fear cooperating because they know Saddam will attack their relatives, their homes, their tribes and their cities."