An open letter to Clive Stafford Smith a human rights lawyer

An open letter to Clive Stafford Smith a human rights lawyer
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
KurdishMedia.com - By Ata Mala Karim
http://www.klawrojna.com/ 06 Sep. 06
I saw your name in the Independent’s the good list 2006 of ‘fifty men and women who make our world a better place’. You deserve it as a human rights activist for many years part from your 50 pages defence of Saddam Hussein; which I believe is either a mistake or something else. It is your responsibility to explain which one is right. As a Kurd and as a victim of torture, I had tried to contact you when I was in Saddam Hussein’s jail in Kirkuk, which is known as the ‘Enterprise of Special Investigations’ together with many other prisoners who were convicted of the following serious crimes: asking for freedom of press, rights of the Kurdish children to be educated in their own mother tongue, reading Marxist literature, writing poems, not being ready to go to war, being freedom fighters or helping the freedom fighters, not joining the Arab Bath Socialist Party and etc… At the ‘Enterprise of Special Investigations’ we had no right to talk even to the guards. We were out twice a day for toilet which should only take few seconds because of the great number of us and as a means of torture. At other times we were provided with buckets in our rooms. We had to look at the ground only and it was the most serious offence to look at the guard. Every day in the morning they read some names loudly and those people were out. After blindfolding them they had asked them few questions and when they did not like their answers they started using the following methods of torture: 1. Beating the subject by water pipes by two strongly built men each from one side. 2. Using electrical shocks on the tongue, the anus, and on the genitals. 3. Putting the subject’s genitals in a knot and lifting it until he was unconscious. 4. Beating the subject’s sole of feet by water pipes or electricity cables by two men from both sides known as “falaqa” 5. A subject was blind folded in a room and they tortured somebody else till he hear his sufferings and bring his morale down. 6. Hanging the subject by a rope from behind and beating him from both sides regularly. 7. Burning the subject’s body by cigarettes. 8. Threats of rape and attempt to rape. All these kinds of torture were practiced while the subject was naked as he was born. This list is not exclusive as there were many other ways of torture practiced against other prisoners. You may ask the ‘Medical Foundation caring for Victims of Torture’ if you need further information about me and my colleagues. Unfortunately we could not contact you at the time and when you heard about Iraq you did believe that only Saddam and a handful of his men need human rights not others. Dear Sir, In 1988 Saddam ordered his men to bombard Halabja by chemical weapons and killed more than 5000 men, women and children. People from Halabja had tried to contact you at time but it was in vain. Again when you prepared your 50 pages document to defend Saddam you did not know about Halabja or you thought it was merely propaganda. Do you know anything about Anfal? Do you believe that the man you prepared 50 pages to defend him had ordered his men in 1988 to capture 182,000 men, women and children to bury them alive in the deserts of Arabia. All but few most attractive girls who sold them in an open market to other brother Muslim Arab countries to employ them in their nightclubs and brothels. Did you hear of the 8000 Barzani men, women and children who buried alive in the desert just because they were from Barzan a small town in Kurdistan? Do you know who Ali Hassan Al-Majeed is? Do you know why he is known as Chemical Ali!? I feel sick when I see the best human rights defenders are ready to defend Saddam and try to minimize and simplify his crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity. When first time I heard about human rights in my small village it sounded like a miracle. We could not contact anyone like you to defend us. We could not watch TV to see countries which we did believe human rights was their concern. We had only a radio to listen to it secretly. We were dreaming we could talk to the radio, to tell them we are Kurds; we have not the minimum rights of human beings. We are tortured, killed and they practice genocide against us. One day our dreams come true. We have satellite dishes and internet in our hands, but unfortunately by this time the human rights see Saddam as a victim. Saddam and his followers are criminals of war, criminals against humanity and those who practiced genocide and race cleansing against the Kurdish people years before the American war. Anybody who tries to attract the emotions of the world against America’s policy may make a deadly mistake if he uses Saddam as an example.

The author can be contacted at:
Parsendow@hotmail.com
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