A post on Iraq written in March, 2007. Thanks are due to Rajiv GV.

The unspeakable horror of Iraq

The whole of Iraq has been smelling of death for a long time now, but only as recently as last month did the US intelligence come out with a sensational report that said ‘elements of the conflict in Iraq’ could be described as civil war. Ayad Allawi, recruited by the CIA in 1992 and brought from UK to be made free Iraq’s first prime minister in 2003, and who promptly went back to the isles when he was replaced after two years, had asked during his regime itself: “If this is not civil war, I don’t know what is.” 

The level of violence in Iraq has no historical precedent. It seems impossible to comprehend the scale of the tragedy. Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University in the US published in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet last October an estimate of 654,965 civilian deaths as a consequence of the US-led invasion, the majority of them due to violence, the most common cause being gunfire. It followed a study undertaken in October 2003 that concluded about 100,000 civilians had been killed in Iraq since it was invaded in March 2003. Despite media criticism, epidemiologists in the field of conflict and public health supported the methodology and findings.

[But the new study has been completely blanked out by the mainstream media which continues to refuse using the Lancet figures when referring to Iraqi civilian deaths. This when the methodology used is consistent with what has long been standard practice in estimating mortality in populations affected by war. The Burnet Institute and International Rescue Committee used the same methods to estimate mortality in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the findings received widespread media attention and were accepted without reservation by the US and British governments.

Human Rights reports brought out by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) regularly paint a nightmarish scenario in Iraq, stating that killings, kidnappings and torture remain widespread.

The reports observe that extra-judicial executions, targeted and indiscriminate killings have shot up to alarming levels. Execution-style killings continue to take place in the streets of Baghdad and other locations, most notably in Babil, Basra, Falluja, Karbala, Kirkuk, Mosul and Ramadi. Each day, without fail, dozens of bodies are found scattered all over Iraq in gardens or gutters, all bearing signs of extreme torture. Homosexuals are being increasingly targeted and the judiciary is running for cover. Attacks have also been mounted on teachers, students and health workers. 

Violence against women is also on the rise. Women do not venture out without a headscarf, and they are not allowed to wear trousers. Going to markets to shop is also turning into a deathtrap for most women.

A number of recent reports of gang rapes of women by policemen have surfaced. 20-year-old Sabrine al-Janabi told al-Jazeera channel on Feb 19 that three police commandos raped her in a police garrison in southern Baghdad after accusing her of cooking for resistance fighters. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s office issued a statement that medical evidence showed Janabi had not been raped, described her as “a liar” and recommended that the three accused policeman be commended. The New York Times reported that an Iraqi nurse who says she treated Janabi saw signs of sexual and physical assault.

On March 1, 18 policemen were kidnapped north of Baghdad and a Sunni group said it was in revenge against Janabi’s rape. 14 bodies suspected to be of these hostages were found the next day in Diyala province.

Three young women accused of joining the insurgency have been sentenced to death, even as independent lawyers have expressed strong criticism of the trials, saying they violated international conventions and that the accused were denied the right of legal defence. Walid Hayali, a lawyer, told Inter Press Service he was barred from representing the three in court.

One of the three alleged “terrorists”, Liqa Omar Muhammad, 25, gave birth to a daughter after her arrest and is still nursing the child in prison. The passing of a death sentence on the mother of a newly born child is in violation of a specific UN safeguard. A second, Wassan Talib, 31, is also in prison with her three-year-old child, according to Amnesty International.

Executions have become a norm in Iraq. Last year Iraqi courts sentenced 235 people to death and over 6,000 to life imprisonment, according to the London daily al-Sharq al-Awsat. During 2006 at least 65 men and women were executed by the Iraqi government, including former president Saddam Hussein. 

The media is being intimidated against saying anything against the foreign occupiers and their native collaborators. US soldiers raided and ransacked the offices of the Iraq Syndicate of Journalists (ISJ) in central Baghdad on 27 Feb. The incident occurred just two days after the Iraqi Union covering journalists received formal recognition from the government.

Media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders lists at least 148 journalists and media workers killed in Iraq since the beginning of the US-led invasion in March 2003. The group also compiles an annual Press Freedom Index for countries around the world. In 2002, under Saddam Hussein’s rule, Iraq ranked 130. In the 2006 index, Iraq fell to position 154. The same index listed the US at 17 in 2002, a rank that fell to 56 by 2006. 

Freedom and Liberty are probably the two most abused words in American history. American interventions across the world in the name of freedom usually scarred the victim countries forever. With their social fabric destabilised, the countries inevitably slipped into anarchy and dictatorships, like in Chile and Nicaragua. Iraq is the latest example.

While the Iraqis slit each other throats, Americans are building the biggest embassy in the world, right in the middle of notorious Baghdad. A place completly cocooned from the outside cacophony, costing more than 600 million dollars, it is “a mini-state within a fortified city-state with 8,000 employees, twenty-one buildings, 619 apartments with very fancy digs for the big shots, restaurants, shops, gym facilities, a swimming pool, a food court, a beauty salon, a movie theater…”, writes Tom Engelhardt on his website Tomdispatch.com. This is where real freedom can be found, in the sanitised ‘Green-Zone’ as the US army calls it. This is what the Americans are telling the world: We are here, and we are here to stay.

The Americans invaded, bombed and razed the country. They installed a puppet regime, which has no control over Baghdad, forget ruling Iraq. They ruptured the delicate balance of power between Shias’ and Sunnis’, which has led to uninterrupted blood-letting between both the sides. The alien invaders got the oil, got Saddam, while the real owners are busy butchering themselves.

Iraq’s future looks grim. The bloodshed might not stop till the US army leaves, but even if the occupation ends, there is no certainty that the violence will abate. The situation looks hopeless. The future is in the Iraqi peoples’ hands. They need to show tremendous amount of trust and sagacity to extricate themselves from the current mess. While that happens, the catastrophic implosion of Iraqi society goes on.

A private security guard has shot dead a taxi driver in Iraq in the latest in a string of what Iraqis believe are unprovoked killings by US contractors hired to protect Americans. 
 
A spokesman for US-based DynCorp International said one of its teams opened fire at a vehicle in Baghdad after it approached a convoy in a “threatening manner”. [Link]