Human Rights Situation in Iraq

1 million civilians killed since the US-UK invasion

The situation in Iraq is catastrophic. The number of civilians killed since the US-British invasion and occupation, is at least 655.000 according to the study published in the British Medical Journal, The Lancet six months ago. Now, the number is soaring up to more than one million. On the other hand, (official) Iraqi reports say that around half a million families are internally displaced; a number much less than other sources are documenting. According to UN, on average one thousand Iraqis are forced into homelessness everyday, in spite of (or is it because of!) the 4 month Iraqi-American security plan in Baghdad.

More than 1.8 million Iraqis left to live in the neighboring countries especially Jordan and Syria. Most of them lost their income, properties and even families in Iraq. Iraqi hospitals and universities lost more than 80% of their scientific and professional cadres. Journalists, writers, intellectuals, judges, businessmen, religious, tribal and political personalities and others who are counted on to rebuild the country either left, were kidnapped, or assassinated in an organized campaign to empty the country from its leading people.

Leading US american and british officials involved in corruption

Nothing is functioning in Iraq now. Administrative and financial corruption as a wide, open phenomenon is new in Iraq. The Iraqi state never knew such phenomenon before the occupation. Transparency International sited Iraq on the top of corruption list. In its statement on Sept 10, 2006, the Commission of Public Integrity in Iraq said that the number of Iraqi high officials who are involved in financial corruption cases has reached 73 (yes seventy three!), 15 of them are ministers, the rest are deputy ministers, general directors, Parliament members and parties leaders. All are granted legal immunity. Another corrupt official, who is already in jail now, is the High Commissioner of the Elections, Adil Allami, on charges of fraud and bribes in millions, the very person who was in charge of the American falls (elections) in Iraq. It is more than unfortunate that those who are stealing the Iraqi people revenue are welcomed in most of the European countries, where they save their income from the corruption in the European banks; nobody asks them from where they brought these hundreds of millions of US dollars while Iraqis are living under poverty. Reports of the Iraqi NGOs confirm the participation of top American and British leaders in this corruption as well as the smuggling of Iraqi oil through illegal ports.

Women enjoyed more rights before the invasion

In regards to Iraqi women, it is a well known fact that Iraqi women, before the invasion, were enjoying their rights better than any other country in the region. Education rate among women was equal to the rate among men. As for women’s civil and political rights, the Iraqi law gave protection for them and for their rights. They were ministers, doctors, engineers, parliament members, lawyers, and army officers. After the year 2003, Iraqi women became the first victims of occupation. The invading troops treated Iraqi women brutally and aggressively. Women were arrested to force their sons, husbands, and brothers to surrender or to put pressure on them during investigations. Raping was widely reported. That kind of US-UK soldiers’ behavior led some women to commit suicide after being released. Iraqi authorities did nothing for these cases; they talk only about cases announced by the American themselves. Despite giving a special quota to women in the so called Iraqi national assembly, the reality that Iraqi women were deprived from their basic rights, they live in fear and terror under the criminal environment created by the occupier and their puppets in Iraq.

Political parties in the government are involved in the death squads and sectarian militias’ atrocities against civilians. This is a fact confirmed by the Iraqi people and officials, member of the (National Assembly), and by the Interior Minister himself. Meanwhile, the American and their Iraqi security forces are continuing their raids, killings, and mass arrests in certain areas against civilians simply because they are against the occupation and its puppets. The pretext is as usual, fighting terrorists. Names, addresses and operation rooms of the real terrorists in Iraq (militias and death squads) are well known and talked about publicly (maps are published on the internet) but the security and the occupation troops just ignore them in obvious collusion.

The Tribunal violates various standards of international human rights

The country is devastated, with some dark-minded mullahs controlling its bloody streets. Those preferred by the western decision-makers instead of the previous secular regime. Saddam Hussein, who built the modern Iraq, faced his opponents in a (court) that lacked the basic principles of any fair trial. “(...) The Tribunal was set up in the context of an armed occupation which is mainly considered to be illegal,” in accordance with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, who also said that “(...) it should be noted that the Tribunal violates a number of international human rights standards on the right to be tried by an independent and impartial tribunal and on the right to defense”. A similar position was announced by the UN Experts Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Despite all that, Saddam, the legitimate President of Iraq and the POW according to Geneva Convention, was hanged on 30 December 2006, in a brutal way on the hands of the American occupation and their puppets.

US troops killed more than 1000 Iraqis at a demonstration

Saddam’s trial was based on the allegation of the execution by a special court of 148 persons in al-Dujail city in Iraq in response to an assassination attempt against him by a group loyal to Iran while the two countries were engaged in a war. Few weeks after the hanging of Saddam for this reason, the US troops together with troops and militias belonging to the current Iraqi Government killed more than one thousand Iraqis in a raid on their demonstration in Zerqa Village near Najaf. Again nobody spoke out against that massacre. Needless to say, nothing is done about all these tragedies. Obviously nobody is speaking out against the main reason behind all that. It is the American Administration and its closet allies, especially UK who should be held responsible for the crimes in Iraq. These are the immediate results of their invasion and occupation of a member state of the UN.

We, together with the Iraqi Civil Society and NGOs, urge all member states and in particular the Human Rights Council, and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to seriously examine the human rights situation in Iraq. We urge your esteemed Council to re-institute the position of a Special Rapporteur on Iraq, which was dismantled after the occupation. The Human Rights situation in Iraq is worse than any other situation and must be brought to the attention of the international community.

Source: Humanitarian Law Project International Educational Development, Los Angeles, California 90048

E-mail: ied(at)igc.org