Some Iraqi detainees are disappearing into a "black hole".

Iraqis arrested by coalition forces have disappeared into a 'black hole' with no records of where they are being held, Tony Blair's personal envoy on human rights has warned.

Clwyd's own files include two alarming cases highlighting the issue of the missing - and the scale of effort required to trace them.

The first involves an elderly woman arrested shortly after the war in the middle of the night by US soldiers. With her family unable to find her, relatives in Britain sought Clwyd's help.

'I spent days and weeks trying to trace where this woman was,' said Clwyd.

'Eventually it meant a visit to Washington, going into the White House and talking to people like [national security adviser] Steve Hadley, [former deputy defence secretary] Paul Wolfowitz and [former US envoy to Iraq] Paul Bremer.' Still, she drew a blank.

Finally Wolfowitz ordered an investigation in Iraq: the woman was traced to a US-run prison near Baghdad airport and freed. She had, according to Clwyd who interviewed her afterwards, been abused in custody: as a Muslim, the shame was such that she would not be identified. 'She was obviously very unsure of herself, emotional, confused: she was frightened. She wanted to put it all behind her.'

The second case involves an elderly man who disappeared in 2004, and was reportedly sighted in a US prison. His son, a British resident, contacted Clwyd. She raised the case in Washington last autumn but so far there has been no trace of him.

I don't know if this is just due to criminal incompetence or criminal intent. But whatever the reason it is clear that these are crimes against these Iraqi's. Crimes against Iraqi civilians in a time of war, that makes these war crimes!

It does not even sound as if there was a good reason to arrest the woman. Was she an insurgent? An elderly woman? That seems highly doubtful. Then why was she arrested? And how did she get lost? And then she was abused?

What the hell is wrong with us? How did we come to this? Has our leadership poisoned our soldiers? I cannot understand by what rationalization anybody makes this kind of behavior okay. I just don't get it. Everyday we stay in Iraq our reputation in the rest of the world is further diminished. We are our own worst enemy.