Torture And The Saddam Hussein Regime: 

A legacy of Hell on Earth

 

 

There are no comprehensible words that any individual could use to describe the atrocities that were inflicted on Iraqis under the Regime of Saddam Hussein. Iraqis for the first time, after decades of horrific dictatorship have the courage to come forth and share themselves with others. For the first time, they have gotten a chance to trust and use for what often many of us take for granted; speak openly and freely. To us it is a daily habit to them it is the first taste of freedom. The victims of the Human Rights office are individuals come from all walks of life but share commonalities, all have suffered great injustice, physically, mentality and emotionally. No case is less significant then the other, for each case is as important as the next. It is vital that the world knows of these courageous people, by caring to hear and read their stories you have already helped and granted them one magnificent gift. There is an influx of various stories that range from, Political Prisoners, Prisoners of Wars (POW) common people who just wanted to lead a normal life and in the process where discriminated against, tortured, raped and put in jail for no justifiable reason. To us it is a narrative to them it is part of their past, never erased from mind and never forgotten in history.

 

Torture

 

Many of the regime’s victims were citizens arbitrarily detained for alleged crimes.  One woman was arrested and imprisoned for over two years for daring to apply for permission to marry a foreign national.  Another individual was imprisoned as a spy because a cousin served in the United States Navy.  The fate of these people was little different than that of the political prisoners and common criminals they often shared their cells with. 

 

The most common method of torture was beatings.  These beatings were often administered with short whips, or cables, of leather.  The legs and back were the most common targets, but no area of the body was ignored.  Sometimes, a prisoner was tortured alone.  At other times, groups of prisoners were tortured together.  The victim was commonly blindfolded, with his or her hands bound behind their backs.  Sometime victims were bound to a chair, and the legs were targeted.  At other times they were taken to “the hanging room,” hung by their arms from the ceiling, and beaten across their entire body.

 

Beatings were not the only form of torture.  Some victims had their teeth removed.  Others had their fingernails and toenails removed.  Electrocution was a common technique.  Cables were clipped to fingers, toes, or even to male genitalia and to the vaginal area of females, and electric current would shoot through the victims’ bodies.

 

Female prisoners had an additional burden, that of rape.  As the regimes prisoners were considered lower than animals, no thought was given to their dignity as human beings.  Great satisfaction was taken by the regime and its agents of robbing their victims of this basic dignity.  Women, then, were subject to frequent and brutal rapes during the entire period of their incarceration, with sharp or metal objects, among other horrific methods.

     

 

 

Mutilations

 

In Baghdad, some business men accused of dealing in dollars had their right hands surgically removed at the wrist and their foreheads were tattooed with an “X” mark.  Again, this was to mark them as money traders, to make an example of them.

 

Shockingly, this was not arbitrary decision, but done in accordance to the dictator’s laws.  According to a Law passed by Saddam Hussein through the Revolutionary Council (Majliss Al Thawra):

 

Any individual caught dealing in dollars will have their right hand cutoff from the wrist and be marked on the forehead and would be prohibited from traveling outside of Iraq for the rest of their life, if they were caught again they would have their left leg cutoff from the knee down and be prosecuted. (Law number 74, article 109).

 

These mutilations were simply another form of torture and a way for the regime to “mark” victims in special categories.  In another example, army deserters had portions of their ears cut off to mark them as deserters. Not all of these amputations were performed by medical doctors.

 

For the first time, the Office of Human Rights and Transitional Justice is providing Iraqi victims with a place where they can tell their stories, share their hardship in hope that they can change their future and generations to come. For the first time Iraqi victims trust themselves, and recognize the power behind their stories. Eugene Ionesco said that the individual is not what you see but what others see. These individuals are strong, courageous and confident. They are determined to regain and deliver the true essence of our humanity, our freedom.