Amnesty International: Iraq still executes political opponents

CAIRO -- Iraq continues to arrest and execute political opponents, a London-based human rights organization said Wednesday

Amnesty International, in a report released Wednesday, said that the Iraqi regime continues to arrest political opponents without warrants, torture them during interrogation and has executed some of them following unfair trials.

The majority of the victims are Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq and in some districts of Baghdad, as well as Kurds in the north.

"Those suspected of any involvement in opposition activities can expect to be arrested without a warrant, held in secret detention, be brutally tortured ... and finally could face execution,'' the human rights group said.

The report cited one case where a detained suspect had his eyes gouged out during torture.

"This is the length the Iraqi security forces are prepared to go to identify any opposition views and silence them,'' Amnesty International said.

Iraq's envoy to the United Nations, Saeed Hasan, rejected the report as baseless U.S. propaganda. "The real violation of human rights in Iraq is the sanctions,'' he said.

The Amnesty report said the majority of the victims are Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq and in some districts of Baghdad, as well as Kurds in the north. U.N. Security Council resolutions require Iraq to improve its human rights record as one of several conditions to lift economic sanctions imposed in 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait.

Shortly before resigning early this month, Max van der Stoel, the special investigator on Iraq for the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, said the human rights situation in Iraq is worsening and the repression of civil and political rights continues unabated.