Since October 00,
Saddam Hussein and high-ranking officials of the
Iraqi Regime have launched a terror campaign against Iraqi women.
Following the decrees, applied since 1994, that have legalized am-
putations to punish deserters and thieves, decapitation is now used
to punish women accused of prostitution. Saddam Hussein's son,
Uday Hussein, ordered a militia group to chase and execute, with-
out judgement, AB guilty BB women. More than 80 women includ-
ing women- doctors suspected of being hostile to the Regime, have
been publicly decapitated, their heads being in some cases dis-
played on the walls of their homes. Everyone in Iraq knows that the
Regime always encouraged the development of prostitution net-
works to please some of their dignitaries or to trap individuals (in-
cluding high-ranking political or military officials) suspected of plot-
ting against the Regime. Before the Gulf War, women were bought
by the Iraqi Regime in various Asian countries.
Such crimes, perpetrated
in the name of the fight against moral
decadence, are particularly heinous.
Other events confirm
that the Regime of Terror led by Saddam
Hussein includes women's repression and can thus control the
population even better :
a.. Security
Services known for their extreme violence
systematically rape prisoners.
b.. Terrible
political blackmail is also used against members of the opposition
abroad, against some members of the Military or the Police, and against
some high ranking officials; the rapes of their wives, sisters or
daughters are recorded on video-tapes and sent or shown to their families.
If there is the slightest suspicion of treason, those videos are shown
publicly.
c.. Many testimonies
confirm that young women are abducted and offered to Iraqi dignitaries.
Intimidation and threats are frequently used to force women to become
secret agents for the Regime.
d.. Other laws
allow male relatives to execute adulterous women.
To this somber
picture, one must add the fate of Kurdish women who have suffered the
Anfal attacks. In the course of the organized and systematic repression
by the Iraqi regime against Kurdish populations, close to 0.000 Kurds
disappeared. The systematic elimination of all men and male teenagers
during these attacks, such as in the Barzan region (8000 men missing)
or the Fayli Kurds (more than 5000 men missing) left women and children
in a hopeless situation. Unable to remarry and having to take care of
their children, these women who
have never obtained justice, live in situations of great poverty. Other
women having been the direct victims of chemical bombings suffer deteriorating
health over the years and end up committing suicide.
The signatories
of this appeal, recalling respectively the conclusions and the recommendations
of Mister Max van der Stoel and of Mister Mavromatis, successively appointed
as Special Rapporteur to the United Nations on the Human Rights situation
in Iraq, recalling as well that systematic rapes are a crime against
humanity according to the International Criminal Tribunal are appealing
to the International Community and to the French Authorities in particular
to ask them:
a.. To act so
as to put an end to serious and repeated violations perpetrated against
women.
b.. To support
the families of those who have disappeared in their search for justice
and truth and to investigate the possibility to provide them with
any form of aid necessary for their survival.
c.. To request
the establishment of a group of experts under the aegis of the Secretary
General of the United Nations or of a Committee mandated by the Security
Council of the United Nations to study the crimes perpetrated in Iraq
falling in the category of crimes against humanity.
Thank you for circulating,
signing, and sending this appeal back to :
Françoise Brié
HRA France
Alliance pour les Droits de l'Homme
Paris