Human rights in Ba'athist Iraq: Difference between revisions

Torture and murder in Iraq were a common means of state oppression to maintain the authoritarian rule of Saddam Hussein.

According to officials of the United States State Department, this was largely carried out by Saddam Hussein and eleven other people. However, foreign powers have at times colluded in Iraqi state oppression, including the United States's and the Soviet Bloc's who armed the Baathist regime throughout the 1980s. For example Saddam's bloody purges of communists were undertaken with the help of intelligence provided by the CIA [1]. The number of deaths related to torture and murder under the government of Saddam Hussein are unknown, but the numbers of dead from the Anfal campaign against Kurdish civilians is believed to be at least 50,000 and may be significantly more, and there have regularly been reports of widespread imprisonment and torture by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, the majority of the cases being in the 1980s and after the rebellion that followed the 1991 Gulf War.

The term "Saddam's Dirty Dozen" was coined in October 2002 and used by US officials to denote a group of alleged Iraqi torturers and murdererers led by Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. Most members of the group held high positions in Iraq's regime and membership went all the way from Saddam's personal guard to Saddam's sons. One effect of the list was to support the Bush Administration's claim that the 2003 Iraq war is not against the Iraqi people, but against Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party leadership.

Ironically, the phrase "Dirty Dozen" comes from a novel by E.M. Richardson, later adapted as a film directed by Robert Aldrich, celebrating a group of heroic U.S. soldiers.

After the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, several mass graves were found in Iraq containing several thousand bodies total. While most of the dead in the graves were believed to have died in the 1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein, some of them appeared to have died due to executions or died at times other than the 1991 rebellion. Also after the invasion, numerous torture centers were found in security offices and police stations throughout Iraq. The equipment found at these centers typically included hooks for hanging people by the hands for beatings, devices for electric shock, and other equipment often found in nations with harsh security services and other middle eastern nations. The more gory accusations which often came from members of Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, while possibly true, have not had evidence turn up to support them.

Members

• Saddam Hussein, Iraqi President, accused of many torturings, killings and of ordering the 1988 cleansing of Kurds in Northern Iraq.
• Qusay Hussein, son of the president, head of the elite republican guard, believed to be chosen by Saddam as his successor.
• Uday Hussein, son of the president, accused of having a private torture chamber and of the rapes and killings of many women. He was partially paralyzed after a 1996 attempt on his life, and is the leader of a paramilitary group named Fedayeen and of the Iraqi media.
• Taha Yassin Ramadan, Vice-President. He oversaw the mass killings of a Shi'a revolt in 1991, and he was born in Kurdistan, north Iraq.
• Tariq Aziz, Foreign minister of Iraq, supposedly backed up the executions by hanging of political opponents after the revolution of 1968.
• Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Hussein's half brother, leader of the Iraqi secret service, Mukhabarat. He was Iraq's representative to the United Nations in Geneva.
• Sabawi Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Hussein's half brother, he was the leader of the Mukhabarat during the 1991 Gulf War. Director of Iraq's general security from 1991 to 1996. He was involved in the 1991 suppresion of Kurds.
• Watban Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Hussein's half brother, former senior Interior Minister who was also Saddam's presidencial adviser. Shot in the leg by Uday Hussein in 1995. He has allegedly ordered tortures, rapes, murders and deportations.
• Ali Hassan al-Majid, Chemical Ali, alleged mastermind behind Saddam's lethal gassing of rebel Kurds in 1988. A first cousin of Saddam Hussein Majid had vast scientifical knowledge.
• Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, military commander, vice-president of the Revolutionary Command Council and deputy commander in chief of the armed forces during various genocide campaigns.
• Aziz Saleh Nuhmah, appointed governor of Kuwait from November of 1990 to February of 1991, allegedly ordered looting of stores and rapes of Kuwaiti women during his tenure. Also ordered the destruction of Shi'a holy sites during the 1970s and 1980s as governor of two Iraqi provinces.
• Mohammed Amza Zubeidi, alias Saddam's shi'a thug, prime minister of Iraq from 1991 to 1993 - ordered many atrocities.

See also

• Human rights situation in post-Saddam Iraq
• U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqis
• 2003 invasion of Iraq
• Arms sales to Iraq 1973-1990

External links

• Amnesty International report on torture in Iraq (2001)
• Iraq's dirty dozen
• US State Department report: 'Iraq: Crimes Against Humanity' (2002)