Despite at least 96 executions in Iraq this year and
well-documented human rights abuses, the world remains silent
Haifa Zangana
guardian.co.uk, Monday 3 September 2012
Three women were among the 21 people executed within one day
in Iraq, last Monday. It was followed, two days later, by the reported
execution of five more people. The number of people executed since the start of
this year is now at least 96 and they are not the only ones. The UN special
rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns,
said: "I am appalled about the level of executions in Iraq. I deeply
deplore the executions carried out this week, and am particularly alarmed about
continuing reports of individuals who remain at risk of execution."
There is also news of another 196 people on death row.
According to Iraqi officials, they have all been convicted on charges
"related to terrorism," but there is little information about their
names, what crimes they committed or whether they have access to lawyers or
not. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have previously documented
the prevalence of unfair trials and torture in detention in Iraq. Confessions
under torture are often the only evidence against a person who has been arrested
following a secret informant's report. Parading the accused with their
tortured, empty looks on Al Iraqiya, the official TV channel, is the norm. It
took a court in Baghdad only 15 minutes to sentence Ramze Shihab Ahmed, a dual
Iraqi-UK national, to 15 years' imprisonment after being found guilty of
"funding terrorist groups".
Amnesty has obtained and examined court documents and said
it believes the trial proceedings were "grossly unfair". Ahmed was
held in a secret prison near Baghdad, during which time his whereabouts were
completely unknown to his family. During this period Ahmed alleges he was
tortured – with electric shocks to his genitals and suffocation by plastic bags
– into making a false "confession" to terrorist offences.
So what kind of human rights are observed in the "new
Iraq"? Hardly any. The list of abuses is long and the tip of the iceberg
is waves of arbitrary arrests (over 1,000 monthly), torture and executions. All
are barely noticed by the world media and the US and British official silence
is rather convenient to cover up the crimes and chaos they created. From time
to time, they break their silence but only to justify their act of aggression.
Recently, when Archbishop Desmond Tutu pulled out of a seminar in protest over
the presence of Tony Blair, a statement was issued by Blair's office to justify
the morality of his decision to support the United States' military invasion of
Iraq.
The statement reiterated the plight of Iraqis under Saddam's
regime with no mention whatsoever of the hundreds of thousands of victims of
the war and endemic abuses of human rights since 2003.
The Nouri al-Maliki government in Iraq with its human rights
outfits is following the same path. Its human rights concerns remain focused on
the crimes of the previous regime. So do most of the intellectuals and
politicians involved in the scramble for seats and favours in Baghdad. People
who for years before the invasion of 2003 were highlighting human rights abuses
as a reason to invoke war as a prelude to democracy and transparency are now
either totally silent or actively covering up the current abuses, despite
glaring evidence from international human rights organisations.
The so-called "war on terror" reformulated many
aspects of world politics and state accountability has become the first victim
of that war. It has acquired variable meanings with highly selective
application. Therefore, some governments have "enjoyed" immunity, no
matter how brutally they have behaved against their own or other people. The
Iraqi regime is one of them.
(guardian.co.uk)
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