BRussells Tribunal, February 8, 2012
IRAQ: Unspoken Crimes against Humanity Committed against the People of Iraq
Criminally Neglected by the International Community
Open Letter to The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay
28 January 2012
Dear Mrs. Pillay,
On 24 of January you said you were "shocked" at reports that 34
individuals, including two women, were executed in Iraq on 19 January
following their conviction for various crimes.
"Even if the most scrupulous fair trial standards were observed, this
would be a terrifying number of executions to take place in a single
day," you said.
"Given the lack of transparency in court proceedings, major concerns
about due process and fairness of trials, and the very wide range of
offences for which the death penalty can be imposed in Iraq, it is a
truly shocking figure."
"Most disturbingly," you added, "we do not have a single report of
anyone on death row being pardoned, despite the fact there are well
documented cases of confessions being extracted under duress. (…) I call
on the Government of Iraq to implement an immediate moratorium on the
institution of death penalty"[1]
On the same day that you made this statement, a U.S. military judge
sentenced a Marine squad leader, who pleaded guilty for war crimes in
connection with the assassination of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha, to a
maximum of 90 days in prison and a reduction in pay and rank. But
because he pleaded guilty, Staff Sgt. Frank G. Wuterich won't serve any
time in the brig.[2] Eight Marines were initially charged. One was
acquitted, and six others had their cases dropped.[3]Understandably, the
Iraqis reacted with outrage.[4]
We wonder if you were "shocked" when you read this verdict. Did you
think this was an example of "transparency in court proceedings"? Didn’t
you have "major concerns about due process and fairness of trials" in
this case? We assume you did. So why didn’t your office issue a
statement condemning the US government? And what does this tell you
about the value of Iraqi lives?
Accountability
You could have emphasized on the importance of legal and political
mechanisms that hold individuals and governments accountable for their
actions. The US rejects such accountability for itself, while demanding
that others in the world be held accountable for their crimes. This adds
intellectual racism to the other deeds and crimes that the US should be
held accountable for in Iraq and many other places around the world, as
Rami G. Khouriwrote so eloquently.[5]
To date, no US official has been held accountable for US policies
leading to abuse in Iraq, or for the lies that started the war.[6]
Despite the decreased US presence in Iraq, the country has been
permanently affected, and accountability should be high on the agenda of
your office.
Eleven Iraqi men in danger of being executed
According to your press release, the total number of individuals
sentenced to death in Iraq since 2004 is believed to stand at more than
1,200. The total number actually executed since then is not known,
although at least 63 individuals are thought to have been executed in
the past two months alone. The death penalty can be imposed in Iraq for
around 48 crimes, including a number of non-fatal crimes such as – under
certain circumstances – damage to public property.
On 28 May 2011, Amnesty International released its annual report. Their
conclusion: "Serious human rights violations were committed by Iraqi
security forces and US troops: thousands of people were detained without
charge or trial, including some held for several years. (…) Torture and
other ill-treatment of detainees by Iraqi security forces were
endemic.(…) The courts handed down death sentences after unfair trials
and at least 1,300 prisoners were reported to be on death row.[7]"
"More than 1,200", "at least 1,300": hundred Iraqis more or less on
death row, who cares? We know that Iraqi lives are worth less than a
barrel of oil in the eyes of this sleeping world community and the
arrogant Iraqi government, which constantly provides your office with
incorrect figures. But the Iraqi people do care and won’t forget the
injustices that have been done to them.
On 25 January 2012 Amnesty International issued an urgent action alert
to halt the execution of eleven Iraqi men. The Iraqi presidency has
ratified the sentences of these men. They were sentenced to death on 14
January 2010 by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI) in the Iraqi
capital, Baghdad; sentenced to death in 2010 for their alleged
involvement in bomb blasts at the Finance and Foreign Affairs
Ministries, in Baghdad on 19 August 2009. They are at risk of imminent
execution.
Very little information is available about the trial of the 11.
According to media reports, their trial was not open to the public or
the media, and was completed in a very short time. Trials heard before
the CCCI consistently fall short of international fair trial standards.
Lawyer BadieArefIzzat appealed to the Iraqi legal authorities to cancel the death sentence of these 11 convicts, and stated:
"These boys are waiting in death row and will be executed any moment now
for a crime they did not commit. They were unjustly charged and
unlawfully convicted and severe conditions made it impossible to defend
themselves, evidenced by the signs of brutal torture, which are still
visible on their bodies. These young men were convicted for the bomb
attacks of bloody Wednesday, which damaged the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and Finance. These boys were convicted for the same crime to
which another accused, Manaf Abdul Rahim al-Rawi, has already admitted
to be guilty of. That these boys did not commit this crime is based on
facts."[8]
What measures is your office planning to take to halt these executions?
Rivers of blood: the WikiLeakswar logs
On 26 October 2010, you have urged Iraq and the United States to
investigate allegations of torture and unlawful killings in the Iraq
conflict revealed in the Wikileaks documents. You demanded for all
alleged abuses against Iraqi civilians by US troops to be properly
investigated. The statement followed revelations that the US handed over
more than 9,000 detainees to Iraqi authorities despite knowing of
hundreds of reports of torture by Iraqi Security forces.[9]
On 3 November 2010, in the Special Information Session of
Extra-territorial Abuses of Human Rights by the United States in Geneva,
I have asked you: "We are very surprised by this statement. Does the
High Commissioner think it is appropriate for criminals to investigate
their own crimes? Wijdan Mikhail, the Iraqi Minister of Human Rights in
Iraq has called for putting Julian Assange on trial instead of
investigating the crimes. Prime minister Nouri al-Maliki attempted to
dismiss the leaks as "media games and bubbles". And since the Obama
administration has shown no desire to expose any of the crimes committed
by US officials in Iraq, an international investigation under the
auspices of the High Commissioner of Human Rights is necessary."[10]
We’re still awaiting your answer.
Three days after the documents were released, Iraq's national security
council agreed to establish a cross-government committee to examine the
evidence of the endemic use of torture and extrajudicial murder by all
of the state's security services. Have you heard something about that
ever since? We didn’t. However, the political storm caused by the
WikiLeaks documents failed to ignite public outrage in Iraq. The Iraqi
population has lived with violent instability, civil strife and routine
abuse by militias, police and the army since the invasion of 2003.Iraqis
did not need WikiLeaks to tell them about the hell they have lived in
since the US-led invasion.[11]
You shouldn’t trust Mr Maliki’s government
We think you know that figures provided by the Iraqi government cannot
be trusted. We think you know that the actual deeds of the Iraqi
government don’t match their words, their statements,their promises.
This is a sectarian and corrupt government at all levels.
Of significance, Iraq completed the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in
February 2010. The Government of Iraq accepted 135 recommendations, and
committed publicly to develop and implement a National Action Plan on
Human Rights. However, no real moves were undertaken to implement the
commitments made during the UPR. Another issue put on hold was the
establishment of the Independent High Commission on Human Rights[12],
for which your office and the UN have repeatedly asked.
You know that between 50 and 180 bodies were dumped on Baghdad's streets
each day at the height of the sectarian killing spree, and many bore
signs of torture, such as drill holes or cigarette burns.[13] You know
that the Iraqi government had issued instructions to all security and
health offices not to give out body count numbers to the media. This was
confirmed by a doctor at the Baghdad morgue who said on February 19
2008: "We are not authorized to issue any numbers, but I can tell you
that we are still receiving human bodies every day; the men have no
identity on them".[14]On August 10, 2006 Reuters mentioned that Iraq's
Health, Interior and Defence ministries consistently provided lower
figures than those released by the morgue.[15]
Maliki’s sectarian policies in education
Sectarian policies of the Maliki government hamper the right to
education of Iraqi children in predominantly Sunni areas. Attacks on
educational institutions by the Iraqi Army and government militias, to
intimidate, frighten, kidnap, arrest and kill students occur on a
regular basis. As a consequence school attendance has decreased
dramatically. A few examples will make this clear. On 3 February 2011
the Muthanna Brigade of the Iraqi army prevented students of the
Israschool for boys and from the Ascension High School for Girls in
Haswa area of the district of Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, from going to
school to perform their mid-term exams. An Iraqi source said: "the army
used force to prevent teachers and also the observers from the exams to
reach their schools and ordered them to return to their homes." He
added: "the army struck terror into the hearts of students and citizens
alike, amid the apparent absence of human rights and law."[16]
On Wednesday afternoon, Jan 25, 2012, in the Sunni area east of the city
of Yathrib, Tikrit, Salah al Din province, Iraqi Government security
forces belonging to the LEWA [17] of the Fourth Division in the Iraqi
Army, broke into the Medina Secondary mixed high school, raided and
searched the pupils, then arrested during this raid seven school pupils -
eight and ninth grade students between the ages of 13 and14 years - in a
brutal way. The school was raided during the performance of students
for their mid-year exams. The government forces didn’t give any reason
or motive for this raid.
Witnesses said that the forces raided the school in a most provocative
and shocking way, spreading terror among the pupils, male and female,
and led the students to leave the exam and the classroom. The witnesses
added that the raid was carried out in the most heinous and barbarian
way even though they were dealing with children, they have no regard to
the sanctity of weather the pupils were boys or girls. The Director of
the school (Jassim Mohammed Alhashmawi) tried to prevent these forces
from entering the exam halls, but the forces verbally insulted and beat
him and they forced him out of the school.
And sectarianism also comes "through the back door".
It seems that the students in dominantly "Shia" provinces obtained much
better results than those in provinces with a predominantly Sunni
population.
In 2009 protests broke out in three Sunni Muslim cities in which
conspicuously low numbers of students passed their national exams,
fuelling suspicions that Iraq's Shiite Muslim-led government is
discriminating against Sunnis and others, reported McClatchy Newspapers
on 10 September 2009. AlaaMakki who headed the parliament's education
committee said he was troubled by allegations that the Ministry of
Education discriminated against minorities, noting that students failed
their exams at disproportionately high rates in Sunni Anbar province, in
the Sunni city of Tikrit and in the Sunni neighbourhood of Adhamiyah in
Baghdad. Education Minister Khudhayir al Khuzai is a Shiite. Just 27
percent of the students passed their 12th-grade national examinations in
Fallujah, a city in Anbar. "These people can't suddenly have lost their
ability to study and all failed," Makki said. "There is an error, and
we hope to correct it."[17]
These sectarian "errors" have not been "corrected", quite to the contrary. Sectarianism is endemic in today’s Iraq.
In 2009, the Iraqi Prime Minister announced from Washington D.C a
massive-scale initiative for higher education. Fifty thousand Iraqi
students were to be sent abroad over 5 years period to complete their
higher studies and revamp Iraq’s education system.[18] 70% of the
students are to be sent to the US, seemingly a recompense for its
destruction of Iraqi cultural and educational system. However, as with
all other occupation's glitzy projects, this initiative has become
another story of corruption and political-sectarian manipulation run
from the Prime Minister’s office. Furthermore, fraud was uncovered in
the 'non-profit’ US based educational group charged with the
organizational structure of the project at its Iraqi base.
We’re convinced that you understand ethnic discrimination, from your 28
years experience as a lawyer in South Africa, when you defended
anti-Apartheid activists.
The BRussells Tribunal receives many similar stories of ethnic and
religious discriminations against minorities and political opponents. We
will gladly share all the information we have.
Iraqi academics under attack
You were the first South African to obtain a doctorate in law from
Harvard Law School. So we’re sure you care about the hundreds of lawyers
and judges who have been assassinated in Iraq. As a renowned academic,
we think you’re aware of the tragedy of the systematic liquidation of
Iraq’s academics. Under occupation, Iraq’s intellectual and technical
class has been subject to a systematic and ongoing campaign of
intimidation, abduction, extortion, random killings and targeted
assassinations. Running parallel with the destruction of Iraq’s
educational infrastructure, this repression led to the mass forced
displacement of the bulk of Iraq’s educated middle class — the main
engine of progress and development in modern states.
In 2005 the BRussells Tribunal started a campaign to create awareness
about the catastrophic situation of Iraqi academics. We issued a
statement in which we requested that an independent international
investigation be launched immediately to probe these extrajudicial
killings. This investigation should also examine the issue of
responsibility to clearly identify who is accountable for this state of
affairs. We appealed to the special rapporteur on summary executions at
OHCHR in Geneva.[19] Until today, after six long years, we still haven’t
received an answer, although we compiled a list of 467 well-documented
cases of assassinations.[20] The most recent case dates from 21 December
2011, when FirasYawoz Abdul QadirAwchi, scientific assistant dean of
the school of law at Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad was killed
while leaving his office, when unknown gunmen attacked him. He was the
father of two kids.
To this date, there has been no systematic investigation of this
phenomenon by the occupation authorities, the Iraqi government, or the
international Human Rights Bodies. Not a single arrest has been reported
in regard to this terrorization of the intellectuals. The starting
point for any investigation into the killings of Iraqi academics, which
began with the illegal invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation by
British and American forces, is with those forces and their political
leaders themselves. Here’s a clue: In 2008 president Bashar al-Assad of
Syria disclosed that in May 2003 Colin Powell, then US Secretary of
State, visited Syria and met him personally. In this meeting and after
boasting about the US achievements in Iraq he warned the Syrian
president against harbouring any Iraqi scientists or academics. "A lot
of them were later assassinated" president al-Assad added.[21]
The President of Tikrit University resigned on 14 October 2011 after the
sacking of 300 University lecturers by the Minister of Higher Education
Ali Al‐Adeeb, 140 employees and professors at the University of Tikrit
alone.[22] The President of the University stated that they were all
very good lecturers. Iraqi sources claim that Ali-Al Adeebhas discharged
some 1.200 lecturers since he became a Minister. Ali Al‐Adeeb also
wanted to impose Islamic law in Iraqi universities through the
imposition of sectarianism and the veil and the separation of the sexes,
leading to discontent in university circles.[23]
Following an International Seminar on the Situation of Iraqi Academics:
Defending education in times of war and occupationat Ghent University –
Belgium 9-12 March 2011[24], we wrote down the recommendations of this
seminar in a brochure titled BEYOND EDUCIDE. Sanctions, Occupation and
the Struggle for Higher Education in Iraq, published by Academia Press
in Ghent, ISBN 978 90 382 1885 4. We will gladly provide your office
with free copies of this booklet.
Rivers of tears: No rights for women in Iraq
We know you care a lot about women’s rights. As a member of the Women’s
National Coalition, you contributed to the inclusion in South Africa’s
Constitution of an equality clause prohibiting discrimination on the
grounds of race, religion and sexual orientation. In 1992, you
co-founded the international women's rights group Equality Now. We
assume you’re aware of the fact that religious fundamentalism of the
occupation appointed government in Iraq pulled women’s rights back to
the dark ages. There are many Human Rights reports that confirm this.
Drawing on stereotypes regarding the position of women in Arab and
Muslim societies, US and British officials have defended the occupation
regime in Iraq by suggesting its positive effects for women’s
emancipation. These claims not only ignored the considerable
advancements in women’s education and employment made during the first
twenty years of Baa’thist rule; they also cover up the particularly
detrimental impact of US-UN-imposed sanctions on Iraqi women during the
1990s. Similarly, these stereotypes distract attention from the further
deterioration of women’s rights and access to education and employment
under the religious fundamentalist occupation regime. Drawing on a
comprehensive statistical survey, Dr.Souad Al Azzawi showed that the
deteriorating security situation drove Iraqi women out of work. At least
85% of educated women are unemployed.[25][26]
In spite of reports of a decline in violence in Iraq as a whole, nearly
60% of women surveyed (Oxfam 2009) said that security and safety
remained their most pressing concern. The survey importantly illustrated
that the ripples of conflict have washed over almost every aspect of
many women’s lives – and those of their families.[27]
"Eight years after the US invasion, life in Iraq is actually getting
worse for women and minorities, while journalists and detainees face
significant rights violations," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East
director at Human Rights Watch, on 21 February 2011. "The women and
girls of Iraq have borne the biggest brunt of this conflict and
resulting insecurity," Stork said. "For Iraqi women, who enjoyed some of
the highest levels of rights protection and social participation in the
region before 1991, this has been an enormously bitter pill to
swallow."[28]
Hundreds of women have been targeted and killed as professionals or for
their public role in Iraq. In the medical profession alone, many have
fled or abandoned their work, triggering a brain drain and crippling the
health system. And there are now two million widows, most of them
without financial means or government support.
While both men and women are kidnapped, the trauma of the abduction for
many women does not end with the release. The shame associated with the
event is a lasting stigma. Such incidents are probably underreported by
families for the same reason.[29]
And it’s not getting better. A report, released in August 2011 by the
UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and your Office, noted that
women’s rights in some ways deteriorated in 2010 and children continue
to suffer from violence and armed conflict.[30]
U.S.-led coalition forces showed higher rates of indiscriminate killing
of women and children than insurgents, a study has found in 2011.[31]
Does your Office have specific plans to address this poignant problem of blatant inequality of Iraqi women?
Maybe the UN, the US Administration and Human Rights bodies should follow the wishes of the Iraqi women.
72.7% of respondents in the Women for Women International-Iraq 2007
survey said that in the future there should be one unified Iraq with a
central government in Baghdad, and 88.6% of women thought that the
separation of people along ethnic/religious/sectarian lines was a bad
thing. However, only 32.3% of respondents thought there would in fact be
one unified Iraq with a central government in Baghdad in five years.
This is another indication that women do not feel as though their
opinions are being considered in decisions about their country’s
future.[32]
A unified Iraq is also what the anti-occupation movement in Iraq wants.
So why does the world community not start talks and negotiations with
this movement that represents the only reasonable voice in Iraqi
politics, a voice that reflects the will of the majority of the Iraqi
people?
Enforced Disappearance
The total internally displaced population (IDP) as of November 2009 was
estimated to be 2,76 million or 467.517 families.[33] 20% of these
families reported children to be missing. A simple calculation shows
that more than 93,500 children of internally displaced families are
missing. Moreover, many communities reported missing family members (30%
of IDP, 30% of IDP returnees, 27% of refugee returnees) indicating that
they were missing because of kidnappings, abductions and detentions and
that they did not know what happened to their missing family
members.[34] A rough estimate would therefore bring the number of
missing persons among the refugee population and the internally
displaced after "Shock and Awe" to 260,000, most of them enforced
disappearances.[35]
On 24 November 2010 you have welcomed the entry into force of a landmark
new treaty to deter enforced disappearance after Iraq became the 20th
State to ratify the convention. "This ground-breaking Convention
provides a solid international framework to put an end to impunity and
pursue justice, and as a result will hopefully have a significant
deterrent effect" you said.[36]
Rough estimates indicate more than one million persons have disappeared
in Iraq. According to UN data, the country has the most disappeared in
the world. The disappearances stem from different periods since the
Iran-Iraq war in 1980. Disappearances still occur on a very regular
basis. The most important parties involved are the Iraqi army, police,
various militias, Al-Qu’aida and the American army.[37]
Has your office already asked the US Administration and the Iraqi
Government if they have made progress to find out what happened to the
tens of thousands of disappeared persons after the invasion in 2003?
After all, the US was responsible for the protection of Iraqi civilians
during the occupation, according to Convention (IV) relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Timeof War. Geneva, 12 August
1949.[38] Maybe we can give you a hint where to start:
On 29 October 2011, the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (HEYET)
called for the formation of an independentinternational commission of
inquiry to uncover the dimensions of brutal crimes taking place in Iraq
under US occupation and to bring the perpetrators to justice. The demand
came in a statement published after the discovery of mass graves in
northern Fallujah of Anbar Province that included more than 400 bodies
killed by the American occupation forces during the second Fallujah
attack.[39]
On 27 April 2011 the Iraqi government has set up a "committee" to trace
thousands of Iraqis missing since the 2003 US-led invasion, said an
official. The government committee includes representatives from the
ministries of defence (Islamic Dawa Party), interior (Islamic
DawaParty), national security (Islamic Dawa Party), health (Al Sadr
bloc), justice (Islamic Virtue Party) and human rights (Islamic Dawa
Party), in addition to intelligence services and anti-terrorism
forces.[40]
Many of those Ministries are involved or are leading the very militias
that have been suspected of carrying out most of the ferocious crimes of
extrajudicial assassination,sectarian violence, torture and enforced
disappearance, in conjunction with the occupying forces. So how can one
expect this "committee" to investigate the very crimes that their
militias are responsible for?
On April 8 2011 you condemned the raid by Iraqi security forces on Camp
Ashraf that killed at least 34 people. However, the problem still exists
and a solution is not immediately in sight.[41]
Investigation in Jadiriya detention and torture scandal needed
The Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of
Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism, 19
February 2010, mentions:
"In 2006, drawing attention to the lack of effective investigations
after its discovery, UNAMI noted that: One year after the discovery of
the illegal detention centre of al-Jadiriya’s bunker in Baghdad, on 13
November 2005, where 168 detainees were unlawfully detained and abused,
the United Nations and international NGOs … continue to request that the
Government of Iraq publish the findings of the investigation on this
illegal detention (…) The failure to publish the al-Jadiriya report, as
well as other investigations carried out by the Government regarding
conditions of detention in the country, remains a matter of serious
concern and affects Iraq’s commitment to establish a new system based on
the respect of human rights and the rule of law."[42]
Why was the nature and extent of involvement and cooperation between
different individuals and groups within the US occupation structure and
the Ministry of Interior never investigated? After all, American
Intelligence Officers had their headquarters in building of the Ministry
of Interior where torture and unlawful detentions took place. Without
an independent international investigation the urgent problem of
enforced disappearance in Iraq cannot be solved.
Results of Investigation into Ministry of Higher Education abduction scandal?
In November 2006, between 140 and 150 members of the Grants Department
in the ministry of higher education were abducted in full daylight. It
was the biggest kidnapping operation in Iraqi history. The raid took
place in broad daylight, 1km from the Green Zone, in an area that
contained several high-security compounds, with a heavy presence of
Iraqi troops and several checkpoints. The paramilitary force estimated
at between at least 50 and 100, in the uniforms of Iraqi National Police
commandos, arrived in a fleet of some 20-30 camouflage pickup trucks of
the kind employed by the Interior Ministry and rapidly established a
cordon of the area. They made their arrests according to lists,
confirming the identities of those present by their ID cards, then
handcuffed and blindfolded the detainees and put them into the backs of
the pickups and into two larger vehicles. They then made their exit
through heavy traffic without opposition, despite the reported presence
of a regular police vehicle. The majority were later murdered, while the
fate of more than 60 is still unknown.[43][44] Prime Minister Maliki
declared that this was not a case of terrorism, but a dispute between
'militias’. US commanders stated that they would support all efforts to
free the detainees. On 14 November 2006 the UN called for immediate
action to free the kidnapped education ministry workers.[45]
Can the results of this "immediate action" and the possible investigation into these enforced disappearances be provided?
Efforts of the OHCHR: too little, too late
You issued several statements about the Iraqi Armageddon. But I’m afraid
it’s all too little, too late for the hundreds of thousands Iraqi human
beings that unnecessarily lost their lives in this illegal war and
occupation; too late for the millions of refugees; too late to stop
religious fundamentalism and sectarianism, the ethnic cleansing and the
destruction of Iraq’s social fabric.
The international Human Rights bodies have not fulfilled their duties in
condemning and informing the public correctly about the atrocities that
have taken place in Iraq by the Occupying Powers and the US installed
government. As a consequence, millions of Iraqi citizen are suffering
from trauma’s from which they will never recover. Many more millions
around the world now think that the Iraqi people have been killing each
other, that the US Army is a stabilizing force in Iraq that is not to
blame for the so-called "civil war" in Iraq.
Surely you must be aware that violations of Human Rights in Iraq under
occupation have taken multiple forms: deprivation of resources and
services, mass arrests, assassinations, deportation of millions, torture
of every kind, death squads, hanging and other death penalties,
confiscating property and houses, destroying cities, ethnic cleansing,
blowing up residences, markets and groupings, killing at checkpoints and
in the streets for no reason, trade of children and women, inhuman
conditions in secret or public prisons, rape of children, men and women,
killing from the air, killing on identity, kidnappings, stealing during
investigation, extorting money from prisoners, stealing organs in
hospitals, killing thousands of academics, media professionals, doctors
and state servants, threats, deprivation of legal rights and human
rights, imprisonment without charge for long periods of time,
re-imprisonment of the innocent after release, illegal and unfair
trials, etc. All Iraqi communities are victims of this repression.[46]
There is not one single human right in Iraq that hasn’t been seriously
violated. And all this has taken place under the watchful eyes of the
world community, including your office, the Office of the High
Commissioner of Human Rights.
A colleague of yours, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees,
AntónioGuterres, has noted that Iraq is the world’s best-known conflict
but the least well-known humanitarian crisis. According to figures
released on January 22, 2008 by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Iraqi
refugees in Syria were suffering from extreme levels of trauma, far
higher than among refugees from other recent conflicts elsewhere. The
figures revealed that 89.5 percent were suffering from depression, 81.6
percent from anxiety and 67.6 percent from Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder (PTSD).[47]According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO),
the fourth leading cause of morbidityamong Iraqis older than five years
is "mental disorders," which ranked higher than infectious disease.[48]
Adding to that, "Widespread poverty, economic stagnation, lack of
opportunities, environmental degradation and an absence of basic
services constitute 'silent' human rights violations that affect large
sectors of the population", a UN report released on 08 August 2011
concludes.[49]
This information is shocking. But your office didn’t seem to realize the
urgency for drastic measures or issuing strong condemnations against
the Anglo-American occupation authorities, to stop these grave
violations of human rights.
Since the so-called "withdrawal" of many American troops, the killing
orgy, the repression and ethnic cleansing of the US-installed government
of Iraq, led by Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, continue unabated.
Tareq Aziz and the arbitrariness of the executioners
"Tariq Aziz will be executed next year, after U.S. forces have pulled
out of the country", an adviser to Iraq's prime minister told CNN on
Monday. "It will definitely take place, and it will take place after the
Americans leave Iraq," said the adviser, SaadYousif al-Muttalibi.
A lawyer for Aziz, BadiArif, said he was surprised. "I did not expect
the government would be that stupid, by doing this they will drag this
country to the edge of the abyss".[50]
"If legality does not prevail in the case of Tareq Aziz, his colleagues
and of all those unaccountably detained simply for differing political
or religious beliefs, facing a terrible demise in the name of Western
"liberation", all we collectively profess to hold dear, with legality’s
Treaties and Conventions, stand condemned, including the relevant silent
United Nations Organisations in New York and Geneva (…)", journalist
Felicity Arbuthnot, member of the BRussells Tribunal, rightfully
concludes. [51]
UNAMI Human Rights Office/OHCHR, 2010 Report on Human Rights in Iraq
stated: "In mid-November, Iraqi President Talabani refused to sign the
decree authorizing the execution of former Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq
Aziz, who had been sentenced to death on 26 October by the Supreme Iraqi
Criminal Tribunal. President Talabani reportedly objected to the
execution because of Aziz’s age and because Aziz is a Christian."
UNAMI welcomed President Talabani’s objection to the execution of Tariq Aziz.[52]
ReidarVisser’s observation: while signing execution orders is indeed
enumerated as a presidential prerogative in article 73, no specific
authority to issue a pardon is mentioned, and the constitution does not
say what should happen if the president refuses to sign an execution
order.
In practice, since 2005, Iraqi judges have frequently made the case that
strictly speaking no presidential decree is needed to implement a death
sentence. In that and other cases, the deputies of the president signed
presidential decrees, thereby completing the procedure specified in the
constitution. The selection of Khudayr al-Khuzaie (a Dawa Party
hardliner) as third deputy president was in part based on a desire by
Shiite Islamists to have a presidential deputy who would be prepared to
sign execution orders if president Talabani might be reluctant to do
so.[53]
To what extent should Talabani’s "objection" be welcomed when he has
executioners at his disposal who gladly sign the death orders and carry
out the death sentences. Talabani is as much responsible for the killing
orgy as the rest of the criminal gang in the Green Zone.
The "Dujail wedding massacre".
At the end of May 2011, a group of men made a confession on Iraqi TV to a
horrific crime. In 2006, as members of a Sunni terrorist organisation,
they were said to have kidnapped the wedding entourage of a mixed Shiite
and Sunni couple. Women were raped, children thrown in the river.
Seventy people in total were reportedly murdered. Radio Netherlands
Worldwide (RNW) investigated the event[54]. RNW spoke via a contact
person to tribal leaders and officials from the Shiite village of
Dujail, said to have been the home of most of the victims. They say
anonymously that the massacre never took place.
Seventy people are said to have died, yet no family members of the
victims could be found. Supposed family members did appear in the TV
broadcast. When a parliamentary delegation travelled to meet them, they
all turned out to have lost family members in other attacks.
The fifteen men were sentenced to death on 16 June 2011, only days after
"confessions" by several of them were broadcast on Iraqi television.
They may not have received a fair trial.[55]
On 24 November, 12 of the "suspects" were hanged in one of Baghdad's prisons[56], for a crime that most probably didn’t happen.
One of the suspects of the Dujail wedding massacre, Firas Hassan Fleih
al-Juburi, took part in demonstrations against the Iraqi government. The
confessions about the wedding crimes were broadcast on 28 May, a few
days before a major anti-government demonstration was planned. Firas was
presented on TV as an activist who proved to be a terrorist. The
"confessions" were highly convenient for the government. As well as
being a human rights activist, Firas was also a member of the Iraqiya
party, led by the prime ministerNouri Al-Maliki’s great political rival
AyadAllawi. Very suspicious chain of events, wouldn’t you say?
Did your office ever ask for an official independent investigation into this case?
Executions after enforced confessions under torture
In 2005, Parliament passed a terrorism law approving the death sentence
not only for those who commit terrorist acts, but also for those who
finance, provoke, plan, or enable such acts. Furthermore, the terrorism
law offered amnesty and anonymity to al-mukhbir al-sirri, secret
informers who report alleged terrorist activities. Those reports
contributed to the detention of thousands of Iraqis. Because of the
"secret informers," many have been arrested without substantiated
charges and many have been wrongly executed. Detainees are tortured and
forced to confess crimes or terrorist acts during pre-trial
interrogations, confessions they later denounce in court.[57] This has
created a weak judicial process, where many Iraqis are detained and
sentenced to death shortly after getting arrested.
These so-called "acts of terrorism" are heavily advertised to the public
and are regularly broadcast on the state-funded Al Iraqiya TV channel.
While the government says these confessions are meant to provide a sense
of security and justice, it’s difficult to find out under what
conditions those confessions were given.[58]
All these "irregularities" are well known to you. Alarming reports about
these terrible human rights violations have been published by numerous
Human Rights bodies. But the consequence of not mentioning the
connection between the US and the Iranian-backed Badr Brigade militia,
the US-backed Wolf Brigadeand other Special Police Commando units, or
the extent of American recruitment, training, command, and control of
Iraqi intelligence units[59] distorted perceptions of events in Iraq,
creating the impression of senseless violence initiated by the Iraqis
themselves and concealing the American hand in the planning and
execution of the most savage forms of violence. News editors and Human
Rights bodies played a significant role in avoiding the public outrage
that might have discouraged the further escalation of these killing
campaigns if they had investigated the precise extent of US complicity
in different aspects and phases of death squad operations, torture and
disappearances.[60] The prime responsibility for this policy, and for
the crimes it involved, rests with the individuals in the civilian and
military command structure of the US Department of Defense, the CIA and
the White House who devised, approved and implemented the "Phoenix" or
"Salvador" terror policy in Iraq.
Mass Arrests
In the wake of the troops withdrawal, mass arrests have been made
throughout Iraq. Police forces in Basra have arrested about 2312 wanted
persons since the beginning of 2011 until 25 June. Most of the arrested
were detained on criminal charges, as well as terrorist activities.[61]
Hundreds more have been arrested in the following months in different
Iraqi provinces. On 31 October Government security forces arrested 115
civilians during raids and searches carried out in various Iraqi
Provinces including Nineveh, Diyala, Baghdad, Saladin, Anbar, Vasit and
DhiQar. They also arrested 347 civilians after similar military raids
and attacks in many provinces[62].
By early November 2011, the government announced that 655 former Baathists had been picked up.[63]
Unlawful arrests continue to take place on a daily basis.
The Human Rights Department of the Association of Muslim Scholars in
Iraq (HEYET) published its monthly report on violations and showed that
in December 2011 government security forces carried out 220 operations
resulting in the arrest of 1726 innocent civilians including dozens of
women. According to the HEYET department, attacks were carried out in 14
provinces.Their report clarified that these statistics of attacks and
arrests were based only on official announcements of current Defense and
Interior Ministries. Arrests and violations perpetrated by the National
Security Ministry, Anti-Terror Units, Awakening Councils,
KurdishPeshmerga forces and other militias were not included in the
report. These militia groups also commit grave human rights abuses and
violations.[64]
Again I ask your office to intervene with the Iraqi government to put an
immediate halt to these random unlawful and sectarian arrests.The fate
of many of these arrestees remains unknown. Family members are
desperately seeking their missing loved ones. Can your office ask the
Iraqi government what happened to these enforced disappeared persons?
Were Iraqi Security Forces Involved in Baghdad Church Massacre?
On 31 October 2010, Our Lady of Salvation Church, in Baghdad's central
Karrada neighbourhood, was attacked by "Al Qaeda". In the deadly attack,
gunmen stormed the building and gunned down the priest and worshippers,
before exploding their suicide vests.
Despite an outcry against attacks on Christians, the targeting of
churches in Iraq has been a regular feature, since the U.S. invasion of
the country in 2003. In all, 68 worshippers died while attending church
that day, and another 98 were wounded.
On 2 August 2011, an Iraqi court has convicted three people and awarded
them the death penalty for their role last year in this siege and
underscored the uphill task faced by rulers of protecting religious
minorities[65], which are on the verge of extinction.
But the Assyrian Christian Community, Iraqi bloggers and even some
politicians have openly accused the Iraqi government for its handling of
the October 31 attack.
a) They point out that the terrorists brought explosives and weapons to
the church in cars with dark-tinted windows and no license plates that
are only available to officials with high-level security clearance. This
allowed them to get waved through checkpoints without being stopped.
b) They also point to the slow reaction of the security forces, and the
botched handling of the rescue attempt itself. It still remains unclear
how many of the victims were killed or wounded by the Iraqi rescue team,
who opened fire wildly once they burst into the church.
c) A senior officer in the Iraqi police, who asked not to be identified
because of the sensitivity of the subject, said that for the 10 days
prior to the attack that the Interior Ministry security forces gradually
moved barriers closer to the church, until the terrorists could drive
right up in front.
d) Dr.DuraidTobiya, who heads the Mosul section of the Assyrian
Democratic Movement, the largest Christian political party in Iraq, told
Newsmax, "I can't accuse the government directly because I haven't seen
the evidence. But this is what we have heard from survivors and from
eyewitnesses who talked to people who were inside."
Duraid and other secular Christian leaders interviewed in northern Iraq
believe that the Shiite Dawa party of Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki,
which controls the Interior Ministry forces, was complicit in the
attack, and that the Iraqi police has become the instrument of the
ruling party, not the state.
He pointed out that right after the church massacre, the Baghdad city
council, which is also controlled by the Dawa party, passed new laws
banning liquor stores, nightclubs, and educational associations run by
Christians. "Even the universities in Baghdad imposed new dress codes on
students and separated classes by sex, like the Taliban."
Duraid and other leaders in the north believe the terrorist attacks
against Christians are not just carried out on religious grounds, but
are also an attempt at driving Assyrians as an ethnic minority out of
Iraq. "We are the indigenous Iraqis," Duraid said. "So the purpose of
these attacks is to destroy the Christians and force us to leave the
country. The orders for these terrorist attacks are coming from entities
and political parties inside the government."
These are the consequences of sectarianism and counterinsurgency policies, introduced in Iraq by the Anglo-American invaders.
As usual, the Obama administration praised the Iraqi government for its
handling of the investigation. "Al-Qaida threatened to attack churches,
there was a church attack, and then al-Qaida claimed responsibility. I
simply do not believe Maliki or his forces, for all their ills, did
this. The US has seen no evidence that the government of Iraq was
complicit in the attack on the church. To the contrary, the Iraqi
government has universally condemned the attack on the church as well as
attacks on Christians and members of all faiths," the State Department
official said. [66] Are they blind, I keep asking myself? Or are they
knee deep involved in spreading this kind of terror and chaos?
Would it not be just and fair to listen to the Iraqi voices and
seriously investigate their claims? Or will the International Human
Rights Organisations - including your office – keep on repeating the
words of the neighbourhood bully: the USA.
A Women for Women International – Iraq2008 report gives a pretty
accurate picture of how Iraqi politics work and who is responsible for
the Iraqi catastrophe:
"Within the central government in Baghdad, Iraqi politics are largely
deadlocked. The current government is made up largely of Shiite
politicians closely tied to various militia warlords.
The Sunnis are not well represented in the government or the parliament,
and tribal sheiks of Anbar, Ninawah, and Salah al-Din provinces tend to
view the government as a front for Iran. Even among the Shiites, many
believe that the politicians in Baghdad are working for the best
interests of the militias, not the best interests of the Shiites as a
whole, let alone all Iraq.
The problem derives in large part from the flawed decisions that went
into the creation of the IGC in 2003 and the interim government of 2004.
Having brought exiles and militia leaders into the government and given
them positions of power, it became virtually impossible to get them
out, and even more difficult to convince them to make compromises. The
militia leaders used their positions to maintain and expand their power
at the expense of their rivals outside the government as well as in the
central government itself.
As a result, each ministry in Baghdad is wholly captive to the militia that controls it."[67]
I couldn’t have formulated it better. The Anglo-American occupation has
created these monstrous structures of death. The victims are the Iraqi
people.
Bloodmoney: Laura Bush Children’s Hospital in Basrah
I wish to draw your attention to a 28 July 2009 report of the Office Of
The Special Inspector General For Iraq Reconstruction.[68]Here are some
quotes from the report.
Large oil reserves and abundant natural and human resources enabled Iraq
to attain thestatus of a middle income country in the 1970s while
enjoying perhaps the best healthcare system in the Middle East. There
was an extensive network of well-equipped andwell-staffed health care
facilities. The Government of Iraq (GOI) estimated that 97% ofurban and
79% of rural populations had access to health care, which included
publichealth programs for malaria and tuberculosis control, and an
expanded immunizationprogram.
However, three wars and international economic sanctions have stifled
economic growthand development and debilitated basic infrastructure and
social services and have left many Iraqi sectors dysfunctional.
Although the needs are dire and extend to cover all sectors, the
extremely deterioratedhealth sector situation, medical facilities
status, and capacity, coupled with the ongoingviolence, has resulted in
bringing the attention of all involved to the urgent needs of thesector.
The severity of the decline in Iraq’s health care sector is emphasized
by the contrastingimprovement of children’s health in many other
countries. Its health care, once the envyof the Middle East, now is
rated by the World Health Organization (WHO), as a countrywith high
adult and child mortality alongside much poorer countries, such as the
Sudan,Yemen, and Djibouti.
In 2003 (while her husband, George W. was busy bombing the country) the
First Lady of the United States became "increasingly concerned" about
thedeteriorating Iraqi health care system, especially for the children
suffering from cancer.
Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) made a
factfindingmission to Iraq to identify the most appropriate opportunity
to fund a children’shospital. Project HOPE found "deplorable health care
conditions plaguing Iraqi society."
Specifically, Project HOPE identified a very high child mortality rate
in southern Iraq,where 150 out of 1,000 children were dying before
reaching the age of five; most diedbefore their first birthday. In
addition, cancer is almost five times higher in southern Iraqthan the
national average.
The project eventually became known as the Basrah Children’sHospital
(BCH), also referred to as the Laura Bush Children’s Hospital. No, Mrs
Pillay, this is not a joke.
In a 27 June 2006 report by the Louis Berger Group, Inc. on the Basrah
Children’sHospital, the background of the decline in healthcare in Iraq
was explained. Mortalityrates for children and maternity mortality rates
have doubled; moreover, adult mortalityhas grown exponentially. In
Iraq, childhood cancers are 8-10 times more common thanin the western
world; the incidence rate in Iraq is 8%, compared to 0.5-1% in
developedcountries. 8% of Iraqi children withleukemia survive compared
to 80% in the United States. The most common childhood cancers are
leukemia, lymphomas, brain tumors,and other nervous system tumors. Since
1993, the Iraqi cancer registry has reported anincrease in the number
and proportion of cases of leukemia in the southern provinces.Children
underthe age of five account for approximately 56% of the registered
cancer cases.
As of May 2009, the total project cost was $165.7 million, more than
three times the original estimated costs. By June 2006, when Bechtel was
issued the "stop work" order, the U.S. governmentassessment concluded
that poor contractorperformance and inadequate management oversight were
key reasons for project costoverruns and for being over 9 months behind
schedule.
The First Lady must have been very proud of this achievement: all these
Iraqi children with cancer who are being treated in HER hospital. Well,
thanks but no thanks, Laura. Your gracious gift is peanuts compared to
the expenses of this multi trillion dollar war. The cost of deploying
one U.S. soldier for one year in Iraq? $390.000. Can you count, Laura? I
can. It’s the price for keeping 425 US soldiers in Iraq for one year.
In 2011, it was estimated that a single Tomahawk cruise missile costs
$830.000. So the Laura Bush Children’s Hospital has been built for the
price of 200 Tomahawk missiles. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, more
than 725 tomahawk missiles were fired. Well, you know what's in Tomahawk
missiles? Yes: depleted uranium. Numerous reasons are given in this 75
pages report for the exponential increase in cancers, but never, not
even once is the use of illegal weaponry mentioned. White Phosphorous,
Daisy cutters, Depleted Uranium, Thermobaric bombs, Clusterbombs,
Napalm[69]: you won’t find it in this report. So you won’t read in this
report that there is in fact little hope for the children of Iraq.
Recent studies about cancer rates in Fallujah prove this.
[70][71][72][73]
The birth defects and cancers among children are a human rights scandal
beyond imagination and are causing irreparable damage to future
generations in Iraq, if ever there is a future.
About the OHCHR webpage on Iraq
What is the answer of the Office of the High Commissioner to the Iraqi
killing fields? Did it appoint a Special Rapporteur on Human Rights for
Iraq? No it didn’t. Apparently your Office believes the fantasy story of
a "blossoming democracy" in Iraq, repeating the fictitious US tales
about overall improvements for the Iraqi people. What can be more
cynical than this quote on the main webpage of OHCHR in Iraq:
"From 2006 to 2009, UNAMI Human Rights Office carried out a number of
training courses for the staff of the Ministry of Human Rights, Ministry
of Justice, Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Defense on the
relevant human rights standards and the international humanitarian law
(IHL), and sponsored several high-level seminars on the protection of
human rights within the framework of Iraq’s counter-terrorism measures.
UNAMI Human Rights Office and OHCHR was also actively engaged on the
development of capacity of the Ministry of Human Rights and the Ministry
of Justice by sponsoring workshops and training courses for their staff
in Baghdad and governorates on detention standards and human rights
monitoring, and it assisted and continues to assist with the
establishment of the Iraq’s High Commission of Human Rights, a Center
for Missing and Disappeared Persons and a national Center for the
Rehabilitation of the Victims of Torture."[74]
The World Community has clearly abandoned the Iraqi people. Human Rights
don’t apply to them. The Iraqi National Police (the notorious Special
Police Commandos) fall under the authority of the Ministry of Interior.
The USA reorganised the Ministry of Interior and turned the Special
Commandos into a lethal, deadly force. The USA organized, trained,
armed, funded and used these forces to terrorize and kill the Iraqi
people. There is ample evidence to substantiate this claim. Already on
30 April 2006 the BRussells Tribunal reported:
"After exact counting and documenting, the Iraqi Organisation for
Follow-up and Monitoring has confirmed that 92 % of the 3498 bodies
found in different regions of Iraq have been arrested by officials of
the Ministry of Interior. Nothing was known about the arrestees’ fate
until their riddled bodies were found with marks of horrible torture.
It’s regrettable and shameful that these crimes are being suppressed and
that several states receive government officials, who fail to
investigate these crimes."[75]
The report of the Human Rights Office of UNAMI, issued on September 8th
2005, written by John Pace, was also very explicit, linking the campaign
of detentions, torture and extra-judicial executions directly to the
Interior Ministry and thusalso to the US-led Multi-National Forces, who
reorganised the Ministry of Interior and established the Special Police
Commandos.[76] John Pace, who left Baghdad in January 2006, told The
Independent on Sunday that up to three-quarters of the corpses stacked
in the city's mortuary show evidence of gunshot wounds to the head or
injuries caused by drill-bits or burning cigarettes. Much of the
killing, he said, was carried out by Shia Muslim groups under the
control of the Ministry of the Interior.[77]
And your office gave these death squads "a number of training courses on
the relevant human rights standards and the international humanitarian
law"?What are we supposed to conclude from this? The nature and extent
of involvement of different individuals and groups within the US
occupation structure in death squad operations has never been
investigated, but there are many leads that could be followed by any
serious inquiry, especially by the appropriate Rapporteurs of the OHCHR.
I wonder why your office didn’t call for such an independent
investigation?
International Criminal Court: Criminal denial
In February 2003, you were elected to the first ever panel of judges of
the International Criminal Court and assigned to the Appeals Division.
So I think you knowhow shamefully the ICC has abandoned and betrayed the
Iraqi people.
"The Office of the Prosecutor has received over 240 communications
concerning the situation in Iraq. (…) The available information provided
no reasonable indicia that Coalition forces had "intent to destroy, in
whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as
such", as required in the definition of genocide (Article 6). Similarly,
the available information provided no reasonable indicia of the
required elements for a crime against humanity, i.e. a widespread or
systematic attack directed against any civilian population. (…) The
available information did not indicate intentional attacks on a civilian
population. (…) After analyzing all the available information, it was
concluded that there was a reasonable basis to believe that crimes
within the jurisdiction of the Court had been committed, namely wilful
killing and inhuman treatment. (…) The information available at this
time supports a reasonable basis for an estimated 4 to 12 victims of
wilful killing and a limited number of victims of inhuman treatment,
totalling in all less than 20 persons. Even where there is a reasonable
basis to believe that a crime has been committed, this is not sufficient
for the initiation of an investigation by the International Criminal
Court."[78]
This was Special Prosecutor Moreno Ocampo’s amazing statement on 9
February 2006. And at that time you were working there. He waited years
to answer the 240 individuals and organisations who filed complaints,
and his answer came after Fallujah and other Iraqi cities had been
bombed to pieces. I think you agree with me that the ICC has only
managed to prosecute Africans, apart from some Serbians. Notice the huge
difference with Libya. On 24 March 2011 the International Criminal
Court prosecutor said that he would present a case for possible war
crimes by Libya's Muammar Gaddafi in May and that he could open a second
case to include more recent attacks on civilians.[79]His declaration
came days after unsubstantiated rumours and dubious reports, while in
Iraq on the other hand enough credible sources were available to open a
multitude of cases against the occupying powers, for war crimes and
crimes against humanity. So where can the Iraqi people turn to if they
wantto seek justice? Maybe you know the answer.
Sectarianism and dirty war in Iraq continues
Mrs.Pillay, we realise this is a very long letter. We can only present
to you a small fragment of the grave human rights violations that have
taken place and continue to take place in this war-torn country. We
would have to write a whole book to sum up all the violations of human
rights that occurred in Iraq while the country was under occupation.And
as you have read, it does not look likely that the situation will
improve soon. You must have read in numerous press accounts that the
sectarian policies of the current government and the counterinsurgency
war of the Special Operation Forces continue.
You may remember that458 people – predominantly Sunnis - were excluded
from contesting the 2010 election by the so-called de-Ba’athification
commission. Iraq commentator ReidarVisser referred to the "selective
de-Ba'athification" process being pursued in Iraq, given that
historically, he notes, the Shias and Sunnis alike co-operated with the
old regime in their millions.
"More fundamentally, the question of "selective de-Ba’athification"
comes on the agenda here in a big way. It is a historical fact that
Shiites and Sunnis alike cooperated with the old regime in their
millions, and it was for example Shiite tribes that cracked down on the
"Shiite" rebellion in the south in 1991. Nonetheless, the exiles who
returned to Iraq after 2003 have tried to impose an artificial narrative
in which the legacy of pragmatic cooperation with the Baathist regime
is not dealt with in a systematic and neutral fashion as such; instead
one singles out political opponents (often Sunnis) as "Baathists" and
silently co-opt political friends (especially if they happen to be
Shiites) without mentioning their Baathist ties at all. The result is a
hypocritical and sectarian approach to the whole question of
de-Ba’athification that will create a new Iraq on shaky foundations.
(For example, the Sadrists have been in the lead in the aggressive
de-Ba’athification campaign, yet it is well known that many Sadrists in
fact had Baathist ties in the past.)"[80]
Still these elections were praised as "fair and impartial" by the
Western media. There wasn’t any criticism about this blatant fraudulent
election circus, neither from the US State Department nor from your
Office.
Media disinformation
Suicide bombings, assassinations and bombings in Iraq between December
18, 2011 (the date the U.S. most of its troops have withdrawn from the
country) and January 19, 2012, killed at least 265 people and hundreds
of others were injured, according to data from the Iraqi Ministries of
Interior and Health.But as we told you earlier, the figures of the
US-installed Maliki government are not trustworthy. According to the
Iraq Body Count database[81], at least 450 Iraqi civilians died
violently during that period. And the real number is probably much
higher.
"The wave of attacks, carried out mainly by Sunni extremists from
Al-Qaeda in Iraq against Shia communities, has alarmed many who fear the
country could descend into chaos once more, with the government itself
acknowledging it is not capable of ensuring security on its own."[82]
This is the story that we constantly hear in the media, blaming the
"Sunni" terrorist group al-Qaida, which carries out attacks against the"
Shiite" population. What is most saddening is that this particular
sentence was written by IRIN, a news service of the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Why are the media so sure that it
is "Sunni" Al Qaeda killing innocent Shiites?
Let me put the record straight for you: in recent weeks there have been
several bomb attacks in Ramadi, Adamiya in Baghdad, Mosul, Haditha,
Diyala, Tikrit, Fallujah, etc., all Sunni areas. The wave of attacks is
nationwide. Please let your office check out the Iraqi press accounts of
the previous weeks.
Then why do the Western media and IRIN focus on Al Qaeda and declare the
Shiite population the main victims? Why would they do that? I wonder.
Maybe it would be good to remind the public about ruthless killings
perpetrated by Shiites against Shiites. Let me give you one example. On
27 February 2009, The New York Times reported that twenty-eight members
of a Shiite messianic cult responsible for brutal attacks on Shiite
pilgrims in Iraq were sentenced to death in the federal court in DhiQar
Province. The condemned were members of the Followers of the Mahdi,
itself a part of the Soldiers of Heaven or Jund As-Samaa, a destructive
cult that believes that sowing chaos will pave the way for the coming of
the Mahdi, the 12th Imam, who disappeared in the ninth century, and who
Shiites believe will return as a saviour of humanity. Nineteen other
members of the group were sentenced to life imprisonment, and six were
acquitted, said the court official, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.[83]
And why is there no mention of the thousands of Sunnis who were recently
arrested and detained by the government? Why don’t the mainstream media
write about the virulent sectarian politics of Maliki, who recently
declared that his primary identity is 'Shia'?
Why is there no mention of recent "suspicious incidents" that have been
reported in the Iraqi press? Let me give you a few examples:
On January 25, a senior source at the Iraqi Ministry of Transport
confirmed to Al-Mada daily newspaper that the British security company
assigned for the control of Bagdad airport caught a Czech security team
of the Czech Embassy in Baghdad with a number of silencers and
explosives in the beginning of January. The silencers had the smell of
gunpowder according to the source whose name the newspaper refrained to
mention. The security of Baghdad airport apprehended the Czech security
team for a number of hours; yet they were released following the
intervention of the Czech Ambassador after visiting Hady Al-Amery’s
office, Iraqi Transport Minister, according to the same source.The
source told the newspaper that the security officers at Baghdad airport
find it very strange to find such silencer guns at the possession of
foreign diplomats since these weapons are used by "special elements" for
specific acts, which are assassinations. Why were they released so
quickly? Here’s one clue: It is wellknown that Al-Amery is the head of
the Badr Brigades, the armed wing of the Supreme Council of Iraqi
Islamic Revolution. The Badr Brigades have changed their name into the
Badr Organisation and joined the so-called "political process."
Said Salah Abdul-Razzaq, the governor of Baghdad, said in an interview
in Al sumaria News: "A unit of the security forces near my house ordered
a grey BMW to stop. In the car were four Americans, two men and two
women, in the possession of handguns with silencers and machine guns,
and they wore bulletproof vests." Salah Abdul-Razzaq said that the four
Americans were driving near his house, and urged the Iraqi Ministry of
Foreign Affairs to take diplomatic action and ask the US to clarify the
reason for this "violation", and warned of the possibility that his
police forces would fire to kill in the event of repeated violations,
regardless of the nationality of the offenders. They were released soon,
after the American Embassy intervened.
What can we conclude from all these events? Something that is being
repeated over and over again by many Iraqi witnesses, namely that the
recent strings of bomb attacks and assassinations are part of the
counterinsurgency strategies of the US in conjunction with Maliki’s
government, and probably Iran and other neighbouring countries, false
flag operations in order to create chaos and sectarian strife with the
ultimate goal of discrediting national reconciliation efforts so that
the country can be partitioned without too much popular protest and
political opposition.
We hope you will not be influenced by the continuous flow of
disinformation, and that you are willing to dig deeper into the secret,
dark underworld of dirty war, media-manipulation and corruption. The
terrible humanitarian situation in Iraq is the ultimate responsibility
of the Anglo-American forces that invaded, occupied and keep occupying
Iraq, together with the US installed Iraqi government. And they should
be held accountable.
Conclusion
The International Community and the International Human Rights bodies,
who have turned a blind eye to the unspeakable human rights violations
in Iraq,should take up their responsibilities urgently. If not, history
will be the judge of the criminal neglect of the Iraqi people by the
International Community during the past 20 years.
The BRussells Tribunal has been monitoring the human rights violations
in Iraq – and the dirty war - since the illegal invasion of Iraq by
Anglo-American Forces. Among our members are many Iraqis and two former
UN Assistant Secretary-Generals, human coordinators for Iraq: Mr. Denis
Halliday and Graf Hans von Sponeck.[84]
We sincerely hope your office will closely monitor the human rights
abuses of Nouri Al-Maliki’s government, the American "advisers" and the
foreign mercenaries who are still present in Iraq. Don’t hesitate to ask
our help if you’re in need of relevant information about human rights
violations committed by the occupation and the Iraqi government. We will
gladly provide you with all the necessary information.
We will never accept that history will be rewritten by the invading
powers that illegally occupied a sovereign country, an invasion and
occupation that your office has never condemned."To initiate a war of
aggression is essentially an evil thing (…) It is not only an
international crime; it is the supreme international crime, differing
only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the
accumulated evil of the whole", according to the International Military
Tribunal at Nuremberg, which followed World War II. And not once have I
seena word of condemnation from International Human Rights bodies about
the illegality of the Anglo-American invasion. Your office has excelled
in silence. Silence is complicity. And silence kills.
We will never give up defending the pledge for justice of the Iraqi people.
We will never give up exposing the unspeakable violations of human
rights that take place in Iraq. We will never give up highlighting the
responsibilities of the International Community.
We hope you won’t either.
Yours truly.
Dirk Adriaensens
Member of the BRussells Tribunal Executive Committee.
Notes
[1]
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=41019&Cr=Iraq&C
r1
[2]
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/24/justice/california-iraq-tr
ial/index.html
[3]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/frank-wuterich-tria
l-marine-haditha_n_1224214.html
[4]
http://gulfnews.com/news/region/iraq/marine-s-plea-deal-for-
haditha-massacre-sparks-outrage-1.970776
[5]
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Columnist/2011/Nov-09/15
3432-iraq-reminds-us-why-accountability-matters.ashx#ixzz1ki ...
[6]
http://wikileaks-press.org/iraq-war-logs-retrospective/
[7]
http://www.amnestyusa.org/research/reports/annual-report-ira
q-2011
[8] Excerpts of a letter that was received by the BRussells Tribunal
[9]
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gKSrkbFk7
IyEkQNAMq7mB5ZhHb8w?docId=CNG.faeec24ca121247e519f47662eae09 ...
[10]
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/Newsletters/Newsletter7EN.h
tm
[11]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/28/iraq-war
-logs-experts-views
[12] UNAMI HR rapport 2010
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/MENARegion/Pages/UNAMIHRRe
ports.aspx
[13]
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/MWAI-7R74BB?Ope
nDocument&query=disappeared%20iraq&cc=irq ...
[14]
http://www.alternet.org/world/77602/
[15]
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&obje
ctid=10395546
[16]
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/education160211.htm
[17]
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/75196.html
[18]
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/AcademicsFraud140909.htm
[19]
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/Academics.htm
[20]
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/academicsList.htm
[21]
http://www.daralhayat.com/portalarticlendah/204207 , http://www.baghdadalrashid.com/vb3/showthread.php18651 , about Powell’s conditions to President Bashar al-Assad in May 2003.
[22]
http://www.aknews.com/en/aknews/8/274009/
[23]
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/pdf/HigherEducation011211.p
df
[24]
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/Seminar/
[25]
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/pdf/IraqiWomen_Azzawi_10031
1.pdf
[26]
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/pdf/WomenUnderOccupation.pd
f
[27] In Her Own Words: Iraqi women talk about their greatest concerns and challenges
http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/oxfam-in-her-
own-words-iraqi-women-survey-08mar2009.pdf ...
[28]
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/02/21/iraq-vulnerable-citize
ns-risk
[29]
http://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/other/iraq-women-in-war
-eng.pdf
[30]
http://www.uniraq.org/documents/UNAMI_HR%20Report_English_FI
NAL_1Aug11.pdf
[31] Civilian death study rates "dirty war" in Iraq , Reuters, 2011
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/civilian-death-study-rate
s-dirty-war-in-iraq
[32]
http://www.womenforwomen.org/news-women-for-women/assets/fil
es/IraqReport.03.03.08.pdf
[33]
http://www.internal-displacement.org/idmc/website/countries.
nsf/(httpEnvelopes)/B6C0B024031DFA0F802570B8005A74D6?OpenDoc ...
[34]
http://www.uniraq.org/documents/UNHCR%20Iraq%20Protection%20
Monitoring%20%20Jan-Oct%202009.pdf
[35] The UNHCR report of 2009 mentions that the majority of refugee
returnees had fled due to generalized violence (51%), targeted threats
or attacks (39%) or military operations (3%).
http://www.uniraq.org/documents/UNHCR%20Iraq%20Protection%20
Monitoring%20%20Jan-Oct%202009.pdf
[36]
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=36856&Cr=human&
Cr1=rights
[37]
http://www.aimforhumanrights.org/latest/news/newsitem/articl
e/irak-takes-steps-to-combat-disappearances/ ...
[38]
http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/full/380
[39]
http://www.heyetnet.org/eng/amsinews/5976-statement-on-disco
very-of-mass-graves.html
[40]
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,IRIN,,IRQ,,4dbe609c1e
,0.html
[41]
http://www.campashraf.org/dont-trust-the-iraqi-governments-w
ords-over-ashraf/
[42]It may be recalled that a Joint-Inspection Committee was established
after the discovery of the al-Jadiryia’s bunker in November 2005, in
order to establish the general conditions of detention. The existence of
the bunker was revealed after a raid of the Ministry of Interior’s
bunker by MNF I/Iraqi forces. The Iraqi Government should start a
judicial investigation into human rights violations in al-Jadiriya.
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/13sessio
n/A-HRC-13-42.pdf
[43] SaadNajiJawad in
http://chronicle.com/article/An-Exiled-Professors/124858/
[44]Action Needed Over Detention of Iraqi Education Ministry Officials. Unknown numbers murdered, dozen still illegally held.
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/PressRelease221106.htm
[45]
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20593
[46]
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/Repression.htm#appeal
[47]
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76360
[48]
http://www.emro.who.int/iraq/pdf/HealthSystemsProfile.pdf
[49]
http://www.uniraq.org/newsroom/getarticle.asp?ArticleID=1546
[50]
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-12-05/middleeast/world_meast_ir
aq-aziz-execution_1_tariq-aziz-saddam-hussein-malcolm-smart? ...
[51]
http://www.countercurrents.org/arbuthnot080112.htm
[52] UNAMI Human Rights Office/OHCHR, 2010 Report on Human Rights in Iraq- Baghdad, JANUARY 2011,
http://www.uniraq.org/documents/UNAMI_HR%20Report_English_FI
NAL_1Aug11.pdf
[53] ReidarVisser. Is the Iraqi Presidency an Appellate Court? 06/08/2011
http://gulfanalysis.wordpress.com/2011/08/06/
[54]
http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/suspicions-mount-about-ira
qi-wedding-massacre
[55]
http://aicolumn.wordpress.com/2011/06/22/urgent-action-immin
ent-executions-in-iraq/
[56]
http://aknews.com/en/aknews/4/274435/
[57]
http://www.dartsocietyreports.org/cms/2012/01/can-iraq-aboli
sh-the-death-penalty/
[58]
http://theiraqifuture.blogspot.com/2011/10/can-iraq-let-go-o
f-death-penalty.html
[59]
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=25022
[60] From Nicolas J.S.Davies’ revealing book: Blood on Our Hands, the
Invasion and Destruction of Iraq, Nimble Books LLC ISBN-13:
978-1-934840-98-6
[61]
http://en.aswataliraq.info/Default1.aspx?page=article_page&i
d=143433&l=1
[62]
http://heyetnet.org/eng/iraq-news/5979-mass-arrests-continue
-115-arrest.html
[63]
http://www.aknews.com/en/aknews/8/274009/
[64]
http://www.heyetnet.org/eng/reports/6004-heyet-report1726-ar
rests-in-december.html
[65]
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article2316955.ec
e
[66]
http://www.aina.org/news/20110301210208.htm
[67]
http://www.womenforwomen.org/news-women-for-women/assets/fil
es/IraqReport.03.03.08.pdf
[68]
http://www.sigir.mil/files/assessments/PA-08-160.pdf?bcsi_sc
an_51B223E9325132DD=0&bcsi_scan_filename=PA-08-160.pdf ...
[69]
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/WMD.htm#white
[70]Genetic damage and health in Fallujah Iraq worse than Hiroshima.
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/Fallujah020710.htm
- Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq
2005–2009 (Full Report)[PDF]
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/pdf/34158205-Cancer-Infant-Mortality-and-Birth-Sex-Ratio-in-Fallujah-Iraq-2005-2009.pdf
[71] Four Polygamous Families with Congenital Birth Defects from
Fallujah, Iraq -A study by Samira Alaani ,MozhganSavabieasfahanil,
Mohammad Tafash and Paola Manduca (04 Jan 2011)
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/pdf/Fallujah040111.pdf
[72] Increase of Birth Defects and Miscarriages in Fallujah (Paola Manduca, March 2011)
http://www.newweapons.org/?q=node/120
[73] The cause of congenital anomaly and cancer in Fallujah Iraq is
identified as Enriched Uranium from novel weapons systems deployed by
the US (Report by Chris Busby, MalakHamdan - 17 0ct 2011)
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/Fallujah171011.htm
[74]
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/countries/MENARegion/Pages/IQIndex.a
spx
[75]
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/IraqUNHRC.htm
[76]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/mar/02/iraq.jonathanste
ele
[77] Patrick Cockburn in
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraqs-de
ath-squads-on-the-brink-of-civil-war-467784.html ...
[78]
http://www.iccnow.org/documents/OTP_letter_to_senders_re_Ira
q_9_February_2006.pdf?PHPSESSID=fef512b2e4c1d042f9b8665f151e ...
[79]
http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE72O04020110325
[80] ReidarVisser in
http://gulfanalysis.wordpress.com/2010/01/08/why-ad-hoc-de-b
aathification-will-derail-the-process-of-democratisation-in- ...
[81]
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/database/
[82]
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=94677
[83]
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/world/middleeast/27iraq.ht
ml
[84]
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/about.htm
The existence of the prehistoric
civilization in Antarctica started drawing attention of professional
historians after the World War II. The hypothesis can be proved by the
medieval maps and research of the Western paleogeologists and
glaciologists. 
