We women of WSIUI condemn the persisting practice of arbitrary arrests by the Iraqi security forces. We condemn their arrests of women in lieu of their men folk. These are practices, they inherited from the occupiers. We are alarmed by credible media reports of the Green Zone government’s intentions of executing hundreds of Iraqi men and women. According to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, the current Iraqi judiciary is dysfunctional and incapable of delivering fair trials. Therefore we see the executions as nothing but judicial murder.We are disgusted and horrified by Nouri Al Maliki’s approval of lynch mob styled public executions, this is a man professing to be the strong arm of the law. This desire for mob justice was expressed in an official statement(*)
Exacting the death penalty on suspects whose guilt was determined by confessions extracted under torture(**), is an appalling crime. This is a mockery of the law, it would hardly serve security, stability and reconciliation.
We therefore call for an immediate halt to all executions and abolishing the death penalty. We call for the immediate release of all prisoners held without charge or trial whether by the occupiers or by the Iraqi government. We call for an unfettered access for the Iraqi human rights lawyers and international human rights organisations to all Iraqi jails and an immediate launch of an independent public inquiry into human rights abuses in detention and into disappearances after arrests.
Soft language and bombastic slogans regarding the’ new democratic Iraq’, fail to disguise the miserable existence of the majority of Iraqis under the occupation. Iraqis are living on the poverty line, without the most essential of services, without stability and security and at the mercy of organised criminals and corrupt security forces, corrupt or apathetic government officials. Now, the sovereignty lacking Iraqi government intends to commit judicial murder.We call on all international and human rights bodies to speak out and put the pressure on the Iraqi government to impose an immediate moratorium on all executions.
Women Solidarity for an Independent and Unified Iraq
http://solidarityiraq.blogspot.com
http://seattlepostglobe.org/2009/11/18/iraq-planning-to-hang-up-to-126-women-by-years-end
http://www.alwaleedonline.com/NewsDetails.aspx?ID=8155
(**) http://www.iraqhurr.org/content/article/1887904.html
(*) http://www.pmo.iq/index/03-1020.htm
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