Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat—Mohammed Shiya Al-Sudani, the Iraqi minister of human rights, revealed that nearly 2,000 Iraqis who were affiliated with the “Fedayeen Saddam”, a former paramilitary group known to specialize “in slaughter and cutting out tongues” as he put it, have been denied their pension rights and have been prevented from returning to their jobs ever since the end of the previous regime, in addition to 300 senior leaders from the Baath party.
In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Sudani confirmed, “De-Baathification law has not restricted everyone, high ranking officers have returned to the ministries of defense and interior because they cannot be held accountable for simply carrying out previous orders”. He added, “Many of them are affiliated to the Baath party, although they no longer adhere to its ideology.”
Sudani explained that the ministry of human rights is monitoring the conditions of Iraqi and Arab prisoners, of which there are around 640, the majority of them from Syria and Egypt, indicating that “what is being said now and then regarding Arab prisoners being subjected to torture, ill-treatment and sectarian discrimination is untrue. Some Arab countries, for example Libya, have sent an official delegation to visit the Libyan prisoners here, and have spoken to them about their conditions”. He added, “Saudi Arabia has been invited to send an official delegation to inspect the conditions of the 62 Saudi inmates here, and the prisons are willing to secure family visits at a time when a prisoner transfer agreement is expected to be concluded between Riyadh and Baghdad”.
Sudani pointed out that his ministry had received complaints from Arab countries, through the human rights council, including concerns about the nature of procedures and conditions that Arab nationals detained in Iraq were being subjected to, and there were calls for these concerns to be addressed “transparently”. He added, “Those who came to Iraq during the previous period of violence did not come for tourism, but they came as part of operations to export terrorism and have been caught red-handed. However, for a portion of them these terrorism convictions could not be proven and thus they have only been charged with illegally crossing the border, for which they have been sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison.”
Sudani indicated, “The talk about the Sunnis in Iraq being exposed to sectarian discrimination from the government since 2003 is untrue . . . The Sunni community is not being marginalized; they have the deputy prime minister, the speaker of the parliament and sovereign ministries.” At the same time, he stressed that the constitution “stipulates that Iraq is a country of multiple components and factions, and ensures the presence of minorities.”
Sudani said that the human rights ministry’s main task now was to “eradicate the legacy of the abuses of Saddam Hussein’s regime, with regards to the mass graves, and resolve the prisoner and missing persons files with Iran and Kuwait.” He pointed out, “One hundred mass graves have been found in former military sites and are still awaiting the exhumation process, and there are also graves that have been dug since 2003 by gangs of terrorists.” He also stated that Iraq is working in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross “to continue to search for missing Kuwaitis. Through the US and British coalition forces we previously received coordinates for the whereabouts of those suspected missing, and the Iraqi national intelligence apparatus has also contacted former security services that know the whereabouts of prisoners. We have posted advertisements in the provinces to help find them”. He went on to say, “The humanitarian legacy (of Saddam Hussein’s rule) is far more entrenched than other issues”, expecting the search to continue for 20 years to come.