"U.N. Urges Iraq to Address Human Rights During Lull"
"The United Nations on Saturday called on the Iraqi government and the United States to take advantage of a period of reduced attacks to address the human rights problems that plague Iraq, including violence against civilians, abuse of detainees, persecution of women and ethnic minorities, and a lack of food and shelter for displaced people.
In a new human rights report, the United Nations noted some progress, including “a marked decrease in violent attacks involving mass casualties” from July to December, the period covered in the report. It applauded the Iraqi government’s decision to ratify the United Nations convention against torture and the government’s efforts to alleviate overcrowding in prisons, and it took note of new judicial safeguards for detainees.
But “even with improvements, this is not enough,” said Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations’ Special Representative to Iraq.
Among the concerns cited in the report were an increase in the number of juveniles held in detention, the so-called honor killings of women in the northern region of Kurdistan, the killing of civilians by private security contractors — among them, the shooting of 17 Iraqis by employees of Blackwater in Nisour Square in September — and “continuing reports of the widespread and routine torture or ill treatment of detainees, particularly those being held in pretrial detention facilities.”
At the end of December, according to the report, 51,133 people were being held in prisons across Iraq, either for security reasons or because of crimes, including 24,661 by the American authorities, 16,607 by Iraq’s Justice Ministry and 3,673 by the Interior Ministry.
Among other recommendations, the report urged the Americans to allow human rights monitors to visit detainee camps, something that the Iraqi government already allows. And, noting that legal consequences had yet to result from the Blackwater episode, the report called for private contractors to be prosecuted when they kill civilians.
Past human rights reports by the United Nations have included overall statistics on the deaths of Iraqi civilians, but the Iraqi Health Ministry now refuses to provide such figures, said Said Arikat, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq.
Mr. de Mistura attributed a drop in violence in Baghdad and in other areas of Iraq from October to December of last year to three factors: an increase in American troops; the cease-fire called by the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr; and what he characterized as “a feeling of tiredness” among Iraqis and an increasing realization “that violence has not produced anything except violence.”
The Iraqi government has been critical of some previous human rights reports by the United Nations. But government officials did not offer any response to an earlier draft of the report — a silence that Mr. de Mistura said he was inclined to interpret as a positive thing.
In the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, human rights abuses have included the arrest of journalists who have written unfavorable articles about the government, the detainment of people for long periods without their being charged, and the killing of women for adultery or other transgressions. Other women have died, possibly in suicides, “typically by burning, to protest spousal abuse or after disputes with family members, while others were found shot dead,” the report said.
The report said it was difficult to find accurate numbers for such killings because of underreporting and unreliable statistics. Data obtained by the United Nations from a hospital in Erbil Province found 249 women were admitted as burn cases there from January 2007 to August 2007. The report also called attention to the practice, among some groups in Kurdistan, of genital cutting of women, sometimes referred to as female circumcision.
The report noted that the Kurdistan regional government established a new department last year to address violence against women.
Falah Mustafa, the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s department of foreign relations, said the government and the prime minister were “personally following” the issue. “Also, we have to educate society, and this process should start from the individual and the family and therefore it is not just the government’s responsibility,” he said.
In the city of Kut, in southern Iraq, Iraqi security forces once again fought with members of the Mahdi Army militia, which claims loyalty to Mr. Sadr. Aides for Mr. Sadr have renewed calls for both the government and militiamen to observe the truce."
