ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:97111202.NNE
DATE:11/12/97
TITLE:12-11-97 IRAQ HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION STILL UNACCEPTABLE, RAPPORTEUR SAYS
TEXT:
(Human Rights Commission reports to the U.N. General Assembly) (740)
By Stephen D'Alessandro
USIA Special Correspondent
United Nations -- Despite some improvement in Iraqi citizens' access
to food and health care, human rights abuses have continued in Iraq
over the past year, according to a recent U.N. Commission on Human
Rights report to the General Assembly.
Over the past several years, the Human Rights Commission special
rapporteur has spotlighted the tremendous suffering of ordinary Iraqi
citizens and described a government which has chosen to attend to the
needs of the central region over all others, forced the withdrawal of
international humanitarian assistance in some sections of the country,
and shows clear favoritism to government officials, the Baath Party
elite, and the military.
In his 1997 report, which was released in early November, Special
Rapporteur Max van der Stoel called on Baghdad to allow an expanded
role for U.N. observers currently in the country and to change Iraqi
laws which now encourage the violation of human rights.
Van der Stoel was satisfied with Baghdad's cooperation over the last
year with the U.N. Security Council in implementing the so-called
"oil-for-food" program under which Iraq is allowed to sell -- under
strict U.N. supervision -- $2,000 million of oil every six months in
order to buy humanitarian supplies.
Iraq had refused to accept the council's program for more than three
years, causing malnutrition and contributing to deteriorating medical
conditions throughout the country.
"It appears that since the Government of Iraq has finally accepted the
food for oil formula, there has been an improvement in the enjoyment
of the rights to food and health care" for its people, the rapporteur
said.
The rapporteur also attributed that to the presence of a number of
U.N. humanitarian observers stationed in Iraq to watch over the
purchase and distribution of the supplies to ensure that the money is
used for food and medicine and distributed equally to the needy
civilians as the Security Council intended.
However, van der Stoel emphasized Iraq's responsibility to ensure
these rights for all its citizens, regardless of ethnicity.
Discrimination against the Kurds in northern Iraq and Shi'ites in the
south have been a long-standing issue between Iraq and human rights
advocates.
"The government of Iraq should ensure equitable distribution without
discrimination to the Iraqi population of the humanitarian supplies
purchased with the proceeds of Iraqi oil," said van der Stoel.
Van der Stoel called on the Iraqi government to extend the mandate of
the U.N. "oil-for-food" observers to include observance of other
"civil, cultural, economic, political and social human rights."
"Insofar as the Government of Iraq has accepted the independent
observation of the humanitarian situation in terms of human rights to
food and health care, it should be prepared to accept the same level
of surveillance for other human rights," he said.
"The Government of Iraq should accept the stationing of United Nations
human rights monitors throughout the country to facilitate an improved
information flow and to help in the independent verification of
reports on the situation of human rights in Iraq," the rapporteur
said.
In his report, van der Stoel criticized the "autocratic" government of
Iraq as "inherently resting on the denial and repression of
fundamental rights."
The rapporteur cited the continued practice of torture and summary or
arbitrary executions in Iraq as a primary concern.
He concluded that "a significant percentage of all arrests and
detentions in Iraq are arbitrary when measured by generally accepted
international standards."
He noted that such violations to human rights are even legal under
Iraqi law. Laws prohibit freedom of thought, opinion, expression or
association within the country.
There is an "absence of an independent judiciary, coupled with a host
of executive orders criminalizing far too many aspects of normal
civilian conduct," which further suppress the basic rights of Iraqi
citizens, according to the U.N. rapporteur.
Other human rights abuses mentioned by van der Stoel included
government policies on forced relocations and internal deportations,
which violate freedom of movement and residence.
In offering ways to address these human rights abuses, van der Stoel
called for pressure on the Iraqi government to change the laws that
violate the fundamental human rights of its citizens. "Iraqi law
should be brought into line with accepted international standards," he
said.
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