Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Title:  "Iraq's Human Rights Toll." UN resolutions condemning Iraqi human rights abuses in Iraq and Kuwait are not effective. (901127)

Translated Title:   "La Debacle des Droits de l'Homme en Irak." (901127)
Author:  BASSIOUNI, CHERIF
Source:  CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR (CSM) (NEWSPAPER), Nov 26, p 19
Date:  19901127

Text:
*POL202

11/27/90 1Me Tx (Reprinted by permission. Use and credit as indicated)

IRAQ'S HUMAN RIGHTS TOLL By M. Cherif Bassiouni (900)

(The author is professor of law and president of the DePaul University International Human Rights Institute in Chicago.

(This article first appeared in the November 26 Christian Science Monitor. Permission has been obtained for republication and translation by USIS and local press abroad, except in Kuwait. Abridgment permitted so long as the original intent of the article is not changed. On title page, credit author and source following three-line format: Reprint by permission from the Christian Science Monitor. (C) 1990 The Christian Science Publishing Society. All rights reserved. In any republication, the name of the publisher and the title of the newspaper must always appear in English in the three-line format.)

The United Nations Security Council's recent denunciation of Iraqi human-rights violations is neither effective nor enough. What is needed from the U.N. and from the world community are not political denunciations, but permanent, impartial, and effective means to protect human rights, without distinction as to perpetrators or victims.

A permanent international commission of inquiry should immediately be formed to investigate all human-rights violations particularly cases of Iraqi policies and practices that violate the most elementary norms of human decency. These include: murder, torture, beating, physically and psychologically degrading treatment, pillage, robbery, theft, arbitrary arrest, detention and expulsion.

These practices are carried out by Iraqi military and police personnel and even by civilians. They are directed mostly against other Arabs (primarily those whose countries are aligned with the US). Non-Arabs, though held as hostages in Iraq and Kuwait, are, from available accounts, treated fairly well.

GE 2 POL202 Regrettably, the media have not sufficiently highlighted Iraq's abuse of its Arab brethren, seldom reporting the horrible, daily atrocities in Kuwait and Iraq. There has, of course, been extraordinary coverage of Western hostages who have not been treated with anything remotely resembling the savagery and harshness of Iraqi treatment of Arabs. For example:

-- Estimates put the murder toll of Kuwaiti civilians close to 1,000. Their bodies -- not returned to their families - - are reportedly buried in unmarked graves.

-- Torture and physical abuse of Kuwaitis are reported as particularly brutal. Reported incidents include babies taken out of incubators and left to die so that the equipment can be sent to Baghdad; rape of women and men (particularly Asian workers); random and wholesale beating and degrading treatment of Kuwaiti men during interrogation.

-- Widespread pillage not only of public property, but also of private Kuwaiti homes, stores, businesses, and industrial property.

-- More than 1,000 Egyptians who lived in Iraq have been murdered, and the killing continues. Since August 3, an average of three caskets per day reach Cairo. Baghdad's accompanying death certificates usually state the cause of death as accidental. Most bodies, however, reveal gunshots, multiple fractures, and other marks indicating physical mistreatment.

-- More than one million Arabs and non-Arabs are estimated to have left or been forced to leave Kuwait and Iraq, their money, property, and personal possessions taken from them. Among them are an estimated 700,000 Jordanians, Palestinians, and Egyptians.

All these acts are clear violations of international law.

They are specifically prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention of August 12, 1949, which the Iraqi military is familiar with since the conventions are taught in their military academy and were invoked during the eight-year war with Iran. In addition, the 1979 Convention on the Taking of Hostages, the 1984 Convention Against Torture, the 1966 International Covenant for the Protection of Civil and Political Rights and the United Nations Charter all prohibit Iraq's actions.

Moreover, the protections established in these international instruments also are contained in the Sharia (Islamic Law). The Koran and the Sunna (deeds and sayings of the Prophet), which are the two principal sources of Islamic law, unequivocally prohibit such conduct.

GE 3 POL202 Iraqi soldiers, officers in charge, and commanding officers, including Saddam Hussein, cannot claim ignorance that international and Islamic law prohibit this type of conduct. Those who commit these violations, order them, fail to prevent them, or fail to punish the perpetrators are criminally responsible.

Allegations and estimates are not, however, sufficient to bring charges for human-rights violations. Ascertainable facts are needed. The U.N. should set up an impartial international commission of inquiry to interview victims and witnesses, correlate data, and prepare dossiers on individual cases.

But the work of such a commission should begin quickly, before witnesses become unavailable or their recollection fades.

Recently, the Security Council resolved to establish an ad hoc commission to investigate Israel's killing of some 20 Palestinians at Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Appropriate as that is, no one who views human rights as universal can fail to note that the same measure was not resolved for Iraqi violations -- or, for that matter, for other more serious ones. Lest one forgets, 1.5 million people have been killed by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, with muted condemnation by powers quick to condemn Israel and now Iraq. We must not have different scales to weigh human- rights violations, scales dependent upon who the violator or the victim may be.

The tragic incidents in the Middle East can be an opportunity to enhance human-rights protections by serving as an impetus to the establishment of an impartial, permanent fact-finding commission. The time has come to do something more than express selective verbal condemnations. NNNN

File Identification:  11/27/90, PO-202; 11/27/90, AE-212; 11/27/90, AR-221; 11/27/90, EU-209; 11/26/90, EP-107; 11/29/90, AF-404
Product Name:  Wireless File
Product Code:  WF
Languages:  French
Keywords:  PERSIAN GULF CRISIS; IRAQ/Defense & Military; HUMAN RIGHTS; EXECUTIONS; ATROCITIES; CASUALTIES; HOSTAGES; UNITED NATIONS-SECURITY COUNCIL; IRAQ-KUWAIT RELATIONS
Document Type:  REP
Thematic Codes:  1NE; 1UN; 2HA
Target Areas:  AF; AR; EA; EU
PDQ Text Link:  163064; 163508