Friday, April 20, 2007
Amnesty - Iraq has fourth highest rate of executions worldwide
Humanitarian
(Reuters) - Iraq's use of the death penalty has risen rapidly since it was reinstated in mid-2004 and it now ranks as the country with the fourth-highest rate of executions in the world, Amnesty International said on Friday. The London-based human rights group said in a report that Iraq had sentenced more than 270 people to death since sovereignty was handed back to the Iraqis by the Americans in mid-2004. Of those, at least 100 have so far been executed.
"Iraq now figures among the countries with the highest numbers of executions reported in 2006," the group said. "Higher totals were recorded only in China, Iran and Pakistan." Among those to have been executed are former president Saddam Hussein and three of his closest advisers who were convicted last year of crimes against humanity for their part in scores of deaths in the 1980s. But beyond those high-profile executions, which Amnesty said took place after a trial that "failed to meet international fair trial standards", the rights group said it was also concerned about lower-key cases in the Iraqi Central Criminal Court.
Death sentences are frequently handed down after very brief trials in which defendants are poorly represented, seldom allowed to give evidence and are often tortured into making confessions that are then used against them. "The restoration of the death penalty in Iraq and its extension to additional crimes was a grave and retrograde step," Amnesty said. "More than this, it was a grievously short-sighted development, one that has contributed to, rather than helped alleviate, the continuing crisis in Iraq." The group urged Iraq to introduce a moratorium on executions and abolish the death penalty, which is opposed by the European Union and the United Nations but remains common in the United States.
"Iraq now figures among the countries with the highest numbers of executions reported in 2006," the group said. "Higher totals were recorded only in China, Iran and Pakistan." Among those to have been executed are former president Saddam Hussein and three of his closest advisers who were convicted last year of crimes against humanity for their part in scores of deaths in the 1980s. But beyond those high-profile executions, which Amnesty said took place after a trial that "failed to meet international fair trial standards", the rights group said it was also concerned about lower-key cases in the Iraqi Central Criminal Court.
Death sentences are frequently handed down after very brief trials in which defendants are poorly represented, seldom allowed to give evidence and are often tortured into making confessions that are then used against them. "The restoration of the death penalty in Iraq and its extension to additional crimes was a grave and retrograde step," Amnesty said. "More than this, it was a grievously short-sighted development, one that has contributed to, rather than helped alleviate, the continuing crisis in Iraq." The group urged Iraq to introduce a moratorium on executions and abolish the death penalty, which is opposed by the European Union and the United Nations but remains common in the United States.
Labels: Amnesty International, death penalty, executions
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Tal Afar victims families want policemen arrested
(Azzaman) - The carnage of Telafar is now seen is the deadliest single incident since the 2003 U.S. invasion with at least 150 Iraqis killed by car bombings or executed in retaliation. Telafar to the west of the northern city of Mosul was hit by several bombings late last month targeting a densely populated district in the mixed town. Telafar has always been a hotbed of anti-U.S. rebellion but also a stronghold breeding ground for al-Qaeda operatives believed to be behind most of the deadly attacks on civilians.
Iraqi politicians and clergy across the country, whether Shiites or Sunnis, Kurds or Arabs, strongly denounce attacks targeting civilians whether mounted by terrorist groups like al-Qaeda or foreign and Iraqi troops fighting it. But amid rising sectarian strife, the confusion that resulted from U.S. invasion and the division of the country’s institutions along sectarian lines, anything happening in Iraq is being interpreted within a sectarian or ethnic context.
Immediately after the bombings in Telafar, Iraqi police, who are supposed to protect the civilian population, in apparent reprisal, killed in cold blood 70 people, mainly young men before the eyes of their families. The government initially arrested a few policemen but they were released shortly after.
The families of the victims are pressing the authorities in the province of Nineveh of which Mosul is the capital and Telafar a major town, to arrest the policemen involved in the summary executions. Tensions in Telafar have been rising and the town has seen no effective authority to restore law and order despite two massive U.S. attacks to subdue it.
Iraqi politicians and clergy across the country, whether Shiites or Sunnis, Kurds or Arabs, strongly denounce attacks targeting civilians whether mounted by terrorist groups like al-Qaeda or foreign and Iraqi troops fighting it. But amid rising sectarian strife, the confusion that resulted from U.S. invasion and the division of the country’s institutions along sectarian lines, anything happening in Iraq is being interpreted within a sectarian or ethnic context.
Immediately after the bombings in Telafar, Iraqi police, who are supposed to protect the civilian population, in apparent reprisal, killed in cold blood 70 people, mainly young men before the eyes of their families. The government initially arrested a few policemen but they were released shortly after.
The families of the victims are pressing the authorities in the province of Nineveh of which Mosul is the capital and Telafar a major town, to arrest the policemen involved in the summary executions. Tensions in Telafar have been rising and the town has seen no effective authority to restore law and order despite two massive U.S. attacks to subdue it.
Labels: executions, police, Tal Afar
