U.N.: Iraqis Face Persecution, Torture

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press Writer

October 23, 2001, 1:18 AM EDT

UNITED NATIONS -- Iraq's citizens face arbitrary execution, religious persecution, torture and forced relocation, a U.N. human rights investigator said Monday.

Andreas Mavrommatis of Cyprus said in a report that he has also "received information suggesting that persons who had allegedly insulted the president of Iraq have had their tongues amputated without trial."

The 15-page report to the General Assembly noted that the Iraqi government dismissed most previous allegations of human rights violations, claiming they were based on information provided by hostile sources. Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Mohammed al-Douri said, "I cannot comment because I have to read the whole report."

Mavrommatis also cited the harassment of families of Iraqi refugees living abroad in order to get them to stop anti-government activity.

He said that according to the April 12 issue of the Iraqi newspaper Az-zawrah, an official decree allows the arrest of a woman with a family member living abroad who is wanted by authorities in order to apply pressure on the expatriate. Iraq's U.N. Mission in Geneva stressed that the paper was not official but made no reference to the decree, he said.

Reporting on religious persecution, he singled out the death of a leading Muslim Shiite scholar, Ayatollah Hussein Bahr Al-Aloom, on June 22.

According to allegations Mavrommatis received, Al-Aloom refused to publicly express approval of the appointment of Qusai Saddam Hussein, son of the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, to the regional leadership of the ruling Ba'ath Party. He said he was informed that the ayatollah was found dead in his library in Najaf and the body was buried without an autopsy.

Iraq's U.N. Mission in Geneva replied to the allegations stating the ayatollah died of cardiac arrest, he said.

The human rights investigator said he also continues to receive information about human rights violations against minorities and the mass relocation of non-Arabs.

Mavrommatis called on the Iraqi government to examine all allegations of human rights violations and continue its dialogue with the United Nations "in a spirit of compromise."

He urged the government to lift restrictions on the exercise of religious freedom, to revise laws on the death penalty and consider a moratorium on executions, to investigate the fate of missing persons, and to ensure that no person is relocated against his will.

Mavrommatis also called on the Iraqi government to allow him to visit the country. He has not been permitted to go to Iraq since he took office at the beginning of last year. His predecessor also was barred from the country.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001