BRITAIN/IRAQ: A chilling account of alleged human rights violations in Iraq - listing Saddam Hussein's preferred means of torture - has been published by the British Government.
Eye-gouging and the piercing of hands with electric drills, electric shock treatment, sexual abuse, mock executions and acid baths are said to be routinely deployed against President Saddam's enemies, in a country where arbitrary arrest, rape and murder are commonplace.
The dossier asserts that some 15 per cent of the Iraqi people have fled their homeland, while those who remain are encouraged to report on the activities of family and neighbours to security services, which can strike at any time. Those who speak out against the Iraqi leader are liable to have their tongues amputated, while prisoners at one jail are said to have been kept in steel boxes of the kind used in mortuaries, with only half an hour a day for light and air.
Denouncing the Iraqi regime as one of "unique horror" the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, insisted the report was needed to enable people to understand "the comprehensive evil that is Saddam Hussein". However, the Foreign Secretary's protestations were challenged by Amnesty International and by the Father of the House, Mr Tam Dalyell, who saw instead an overt attempt by the British government to win backing for war against Iraq.
Publication of the dossier came just six days before Baghdad must comply with UN Resolution 1441 and submit a full declaration of its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons capacity.
Veteran Labour MP Mr Dalyell said: "I think that this highly unusual, indeed unprecedented, publication is cranking up the war. To say that our quarrel is not with the Iraqi people is preposterous. In a word, who is going to suffer other than the Iraqi people?"
Amnesty - one of the non-governmental organisations whose research is quoted in the dossier - said: "This selective attention to human rights is nothing but a cold and calculated manipulation of the work of human rights activists. Let us not forget that these same governments turned a blind eye to Amnesty International's reports of widespread human rights violations in Iraq before the Gulf War."
Mr Straw insisted it was right "to remind the world that the abuses of the Iraqi regime extend far beyond its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction". And the Foreign Secretary made a direct link between disarming President Saddam and lifting "the rule of fear" from the Iraqi people.
"It is surely a regime of unique horror which is prepared to kill thousands of its own civilians by poisonous gas," said Mr Straw in a speech to the Atlantic Partnership in London. "Yet what occurred in Halabja in 1988 is a vivid demonstration of the integral part Saddam's weapons of mass destruction play in the rule of fear which pervades Iraq today."
He continued: "So by disarming Iraq, we not only help those countries in the region which are subject to Iraqi threats and intimidation, we also deprive Saddam of his most powerful tools for keeping the Iraqi people living in fear and subjugation." According to yesterday's account, those tools include the pouring of acid into open wounds, the application of electric shocks to the genitals, the use of sexual abuse as an instrument of torture, acid baths and the extraction of finger and toenails.
The 23-page document claims "torture is systematic in Iraq" and that "the most senior figures in the regime are personally involved". Describing Iraq as "a terrifying place to live", the introduction says President Saddam runs the country with close members of his family. "These are the only people he feels he can trust. He directly controls the security services, and, through them and a huge party network, his influence runs deep.
"All real authority rests with Saddam and his immediate circle. Saddam is head of state, head of government, leader of Iraq's only political party and head of the armed forces. Saddam presides over the all-powerful Revolutionary Command Council, which enacts laws and decrees and over-rides all other state institutions."
One RCC decree guarantees immunity for members of the Ba'ath party who cause damage to property or commit bodily harm or even death in pursuit of enemies of the regime. Another decree establishes penalties including branding, amputation and the cutting off of ears for criminal offences. And the dossier quotes an Amnesty report in August last year stating: "Torture is used systematically against political detainees. The scale and severity of torture in Iraq can only result from the acceptance of its use at the highest level."
Foreign Office officials said the new dossier was a contribution to the debate about the Iraqi regime but was not related to the question of possible military action.
The British government has announced emergency plans to give selected groups of military personnel and health workers vaccinations against the possibility of any smallpox release as part of any biological attack on the UK. However Downing Street stressed the move was not a response to any specific threat.