Iraq: People come first
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Wounded Iraqi boy in hospital after bombings, Basra, Iraq © AP GraphicsBank |
For decades the people of Iraq have suffered appalling human rights abuses and the devastating consequences of war and economic sanctions. For decades Amnesty International’s members and supporters have campaigned tirelessly for the rights and dignity of Iraq’s people.
In a climate of fear, many thousands of Iraqis were killed over the years by the security forces. Similar numbers “disappeared” after arrest. Countless people were tortured, imprisoned or executed for daring to oppose the government or for simply belonging to a particular community.
The 1980-88 war between Iraq and Iran cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of young conscripts. After Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, the US-led military intervention to force Iraq’s withdrawal led to the deaths of thousands more. The uprisings by Shi’a Muslims in the south and Kurds in the north that followed the 1991 war were brutally crushed by Iraqi forces.
The UN-imposed economic sanctions on Iraq from 1990 contributed to the early deaths of countless people, particularly children, and to widespread hardship. From 1998, UK and US military forces carried out repeated air strikes, causing civilian casualties, while maintaining “no fly zones” in the north and south of the country.
The March/April 2003 war on Iraq by US and UK forces saw large numbers of Iraqi civilians killed.
With the end of the war, peace and security remained elusive as widespread lawlessness and violence persisted. Unexploded cluster bombs posed a continuing risk, as did the lack of water and electricity supplies to towns. Hospitals, already starved of supplies, struggled to provide the most basic help to the sick and injured.
Long-term stability and human rights protection in Iraq require the rule of law and transparent, accountable systems of government that are based on respect for human rights and recognition of the particular needs of women as well as ethnic and religious groups without discrimination.
Amnesty International’s efforts to draw attention to the human rights of all the people of Iraq over the decades have frequently been greeted by indifference or hostility from government leaders who put their own political interests first.
This Briefing, published in the wake of the 2003 war, shows that human rights must not be subject to political, economic and military interests if the long suffering of Iraq’s people is to end. People must come first.
IRAQ: BACKGROUND
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Iraq borders Iran, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. It gained independence in 1932 and became a republic in 1958. The Ba’ath Party took power in 1968, led first by Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr and from 1979 by Saddam Hussain.
More than half the estimated population of 24 million are Shi’a Muslims who live mainly in the south. Most of the rest are Sunni Muslims, although there is a sizeable Christian community.
Ethnic minority groups include Assyrians, Kurds and Turkmen. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority and live mostly in the north. After a 1970 autonomy agreement broke down in 1974, fighting resumed between Kurdish Pesh Merga and Iraqi forces. In 1991 the Iraqi government withdrew from the Kurdish region, and since regional elections in mid-1992 Iraqi Kurdistan has been relatively autonomous.
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