Posted on 11/23/2002 4:07:26 PM PST by MadIvan
A LONDON-BASED human rights organisation will file a complaint this week with the International Olympic Committee against Saddam Husseins elder son Uday, saying he has punished some of Iraqs top sportsmen with beatings, harassment and electric shock torture. It claims he once made a group of athletes crawl on newly poured asphalt while they were hit with a cable.
Among the allegations is a charge that in the basement of Iraqs lavish Olympic committee headquarters in Baghdad, Uday ran a 30-cell prison for sportsmen and others who had offended him. He allegedly used its warehouses for smuggling in contravention of United Nations sanctions.
It is inconceivable that a national Olympic committee that maintains its own prison and torture chambers could remain a member in good standing of the Olympic movement, the organisation Indict says in is formal complaint.
Udays extreme and outrageous violations of the Olympic charter, including violations of human rights, threaten the integrity of the Olympic movement and warrant severe penalties, including Iraqs suspension from the International Olympic Committee, the group says. Indicts dossier includes documents, video footage, sworn statements and photographs. The organisation was set up in 1997 with the aim of bringing Saddam and other Iraqi leaders before an international court on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. It is headed by Ann Clwyd, the Labour MP.
Some of the most compelling evidence Indict has gathered comes from a Kurdish athlete who cannot be named for fear of reprisals. In a sworn statement he tells how he was called in by the finance officer of his sports federation a few days before he was due to travel to a tournament outside Iraq and asked to sign a blank cheque. A few days later he was arrested and taken to a prison run by Saddams Fedayeen force, headed by Uday. He was told that the official who asked him to sign the cheque had accused him of insulting Uday.
After 20 days of torture he was taken to another prison in the desert, where he was tortured for 18 hours every day, he says. While there, he saw other prisoners being tortured and killed. Two were thrown off a 75ft high bridge.
The prisoners he met there included a bodyguard who saved Udays life when he was shot in 1996, a newspaper editor who had failed to attend an Olympic committee meeting, a zookeeper accused of letting two lion cubs die and an executive from Udays television station who had allowed a 20-second gap after a broadcast of slogans before Saddams photograph appeared on screen. The athlete was eventually moved to another jail and freed. He is seeking asylum outside Iraq.
Another complainant is Latif Yahia Latif Al-Salihi, who was recruited to be Udays double in October 1987. After the Iraqi football team lost a match in 1988, he said, an enraged Uday attacked him with an electric shock baton. He was subjected to similar treatment at Baghdad airport over the greeting of a foreign Olympic delegation. Uday believed he was not taking his duties seriously enough.
In 1989, Al-Salihi said, he was present when the Iraqi football team was brought to the Olympic committee headquarters after a poor performance. The players had their heads shaved and were beaten with baseball bats. The next year, Udays girlfriend was captain of a female basketball team competing in university cup finals, he said. The team lost and she blamed her teammates. Uday ordered that the womens heads be shaved.
Regards, Ivan
I agree, but there are a whole bunch more evil scum bags in their political party. Disarm them, and turn them over to the people.
Outstanding suggestion! I'd love to see some of these Muslim/Saddam apologists having to live with these savages.
And the tearfully mournful lamentations clogging the streets of Berkeley at the same time.
Notice to all athletes:
The Beatings Will Continue Until Performance Improves
Signed, Uday
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