ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:97041101.NNE
DATE:04/11/97
TITLE:11-04-97 UN INVESTIGATOR CALLS FOR END TO BAGHDAD'S TOTALITARIAN REGIME
TEXT:
(Expresses particular concern about disappearances) (430)
By Wendy Lubetkin
USIA European Correspondent
Geneva -- Max van der Stoel, the U.N. special rapporteur charged with
investigating human rights violations in Iraq, told the U.N.
Commission on Human Rights April 11 that there will be no hope of
improvement for the Iraqi people unless there is a change of
government in Baghdad.
"This is really one of the worst dictatorships the world knows," he
said later at a press conference.
In his address to the Commission, van der Stoel said Baghdad's
reputation is "one of long-standing, widespread and systematic
violation of human rights."
"So long as the politico-legal order in Iraq remains as it is, the
government will never be in compliance with its international
obligations and the people will not be free to live in dignity or to
develop fully their aspirations," van der Stoel told the Commission.
"Fundamentally, the politico-legal order must change. The government
must become based upon the genuine will of the people, it must follow
the Rule of Law and it must respect human rights and fundamental
freedoms."
Van der Stoel's report states that "Iraq is a dictatorial,
totalitarian State which allows no political dissent. Freedoms of
opinion, expression, association and assembly do not exist in Iraq."
Van der Stoel expressed particular concern about the 16,199 cases of
disappearances which have been recorded in Iraq since the late 1980s.
That figure does not even include the more than 600 Kuwaitis and
third-country nationals who are missing following Iraq's illegal
occupation of Kuwait, he noted. On disappearances, "Iraq has decidedly
the worst record in the world," van der Stoel told the Commission.
Despite the high number of disappearances, Baghdad has made no attempt
to assist suffering families in discovering the fate of their loved
ones. He pointed out that Iraq has "so far failed even to establish a
national commission to which families could address themselves."
Van der Stoel, who has reported on human rights in Iraq for the
Commission for six years, said he saw no sign of improvement in Iraq's
human rights record during the past year.
Van der Stoel's report is available on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.unhchr.ch/ This is the first year that the United Nations
has made the reports to the Commission on Human Rights and other
public documents of the Commission available over the Internet as soon
as they are released.
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