Arbitrary and Summary Killings (In Iraq)

This is Nottingham (UK) ^ | March 1, 2003

[Lando Lincoln]

ARBITRARY AND SUMMARY KILLINGS

Executions are carried out without due process of law. Relatives are often prevented from burying the victims in accordance with Islamic practice, and have even been charged for the bullets used.

Human rights organisations, such as Human Rights Watch, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iraq have reported the phenomenon of killing inmates in order to 'cleanse' the prisons. In 1984, 4,000 political prisoners were executed at a single prison, the Abu Ghraib. An estimated 2,500 prisoners were executed between 1997 and 1999 in a further "prison cleansing" campaign. In February 2000, 64 male prisoners were executed at Abu Ghraib, followed in March by a further 58, all of whom had previously been held in solitary confinement. In October 2001, 23 political prisoners, mainly Shia Muslims, were executed at Abu Ghraib. Between 1993 and 1998 around 3,000 prisoners from the "Mahjar" prison were executed in an execution area called the "Hadiqa" (garden) near to the prison. The "Hadiqa" consisted of an open area and sand bank that was covered by a steel awning. Prisoners from the "Mahjar" were executed in the "Hadiqa" by machine gun. A Special Oversight Committee at the prison decided on the executions.

Non-Judicial Beheading and Torture (From the Iraq Research and Documentation Project, Harvard University)

Although local commanders have wide latitude to execute prisoners, this commander is rebuked for not interrogating them before killing them.

The document below was issued following the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council's appointment in March 1987 of Ali Hasan al-Majid as head of all security, military and civil affairs in northern Iraq. Immediately after his appointment the Anfal campaign against the Kurds was launched. The regime pursued its campaign using a range of indiscriminate and lethal methods, including chemical attacks against Kurdish civilians, the destruction of Kurdish villages and executions by beheading.

One Arab Nation With an Eternal Message The Ba'ath Arab Socialist Party The Region of Iraq Northern Organisation Bureau Command Number: 5083 (Secretariat Office) Date 22 Aug 1987 "Confidential and Personal" To: First Corps Command Subject: Execution of Criminals Comradely Salute, [Re:] your personal and confidential letter [No.] 352 on 8 Aug 1987. The valiant comrade, Ali Hasan al-Majid, Commander of the Northern Organisation Bureau, has commented as follows on your aforementioned letter: "There is no objection to cutting off the heads of traitors. But it would have been preferable had you also sent them to Security for the purpose of interrogating them. [Security personnel] could have got from them other significant information that could have been useful, prior to their execution." Kindly review...Respectfully [Signature] Tahir Tawfiq Secretary of Northern Affairs Committee 95% of them, and to leave 5% for interrogation.

Ra'id Qadir Agha, the member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, whose experience of prison is given on page 11, recalls vividly the execution of prisoners. "Also, on the day after Udayy (Saddam's son) was shot at, the death chamber section had more than 800 prisoners in it. You could see things for yourself from the rooms which overlooked the solitary section. It happened that the inmates of those two rooms, during that night, would draw a line on the wall for every dead body they saw taken out. Thus that very night more than 2000 prisoners were put to death. For they had brought a guillotine that beheaded 12 by 12, that is, twenty-four prisoners per minute."

Dealing with Demonstrations (from the Iraq Research and Documentation Project, Harvard University)

The document translated below shows a set of instructions for dealing with opposition demonstrations. The memorandum, dated March 6, 1991, is from Baghdad Security Headquarters to the Director General of the Dohuk Governorate Security Directorate and his subordinates.

Chief of Security Dohuk Governorate 2/3/1991 Instructions 1. All officers, deputies and NCOs to report to their bases with all their weapons immediately upon hearing of a demonstration, in order to receive instructions. 2. All of those responsible for the self defence of the directorate to remain at post without leaving their place of duty under the supervision of officer in charge. 3. In the event of a hostile demonstration, these groups will be contained by closing all access routes and by taking control of all high points overlooking them. 4. After taking the above measures and containing the hostile elements, armed force will be used in accordance with central instructions to kill 95% of them, and to leave 5% for interrogation. 5. If the force comes under hostile fire from other directions and it is possible that there are saboteur elements in the vicinity to protect the demonstration, the force will return fire intensively. 6. An emergency force will be prepared to reinforce the primary force and to defend sensitive sites. 7. The technical unit will, when authorised, use technical means as instructed under the supervision of the officer of the unit and the security representative Tahir Mahmud Ahmad. (Editorial note: technical unit and technical means are euphemisms for chemical weapons.)

[Lando Lincoln]

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[Kevin Curry]

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