Ask Amnesty

From Randall, Mercer Island, WA:

My pro-war friends are suspicious of Amnesty and other human-rights groups, essentially accusing them of bias when reporting on or warning against possible wrongdoings on the part of the United States. How can I (succinctly --- for we are in the era of bumper-stickers) point out AI's evenhandedness, and that in particular AI has spoken out against Iraqi wrongdoing for over a decade?

Amnesty International USA's Iraq Country Specialist, Beth Ann Toupin responds. She has been an active member of Amnesty International for many years and is currently a member of the AIUSA Board of Directors.

You've got the short answer already: Amnesty International is a human rights organization. As such, we will research, report and mobilize our members to campaign against human rights violations perpetrated by any party. Our record here is clear and consistent: we stand for the rights of the people of Iraq. For decades, Amnesty has spoken out against violations against the Iraqi people by their own government, and more recently by other governments and entities acting within Iraq's borders. The message regarding policies and actions affecting Iraq -- whether directed to Iraqi officials, the Kurdish Authorities, the United States, or the United Nations Security Council -- remains the same: the protection of the rights of the people of Iraq must be paramount.

Now for the longer answer. Amnesty International has not only spoken out, but has actively attempted to engage the world community to address the consistent pattern of gross human rights violations by the Iraqi government for decades. We have raised our voice against the regime's many forms of brutality: the arbitrary arrest and detention of suspected political opponents and their families; forced expulsions and relocations of Kurds, Shi'a and other minorities; torture; extra-judicial executions the death penalty; unfair summary trials; "disappearances" ... the list goes on. It has been challenging work and, for many years, very lonely work, as Amnesty's appeals for action to protect the Iraqi people were met with little evidence that the rest of the world cared. Even after the use of chemical weapons against Kurdish villages during the Anfal -- the Iraqi government's campaign against the Kurds -- and reports that Iraq had deployed chemical weapons in the Iran/Iraq war, governments and corporations conducting business in Iraq were virtually silent. Amnesty was not.

While world interest in Iraq has grown since 1990, Amnesty's task has not grown simpler. The Iraqi government violated the Kuwaiti population as it has its own, and during the ensuing Gulf War, used indiscriminate weapons, including landmines, and endangered the civilian population by utilizing them as "human shields". The Iraqi government's repression of Shi'a dissent has continued unabated since the failed uprising following that war. After the war, the Kurds faced continuing reprisals, including forced relocations, but also were subject to abuses by their own authorities; competing Kurdish parties controlling autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan were responsible for grave violations, including arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, executions and "disappearances" in the years following the war, and Amnesty has outstanding concerns that it continues to address there. Amnesty also raised concerns about thousands of reported civilian casualties resulting from the coalition's aerial bombardment of Baghdad and other cities. In one incident, more than 300 civilians were killed in the Amariya air raid shelter in Baghdad.

Amnesty's concerns about indiscriminate attacks and the deployment of inherently indiscriminate weapons, such as cluster bombs, have been reiterated throughout the intervening years, as regular air strikes by US and UK forces inside and outside the two air exclusions zones in northern and southern Iraq have reportedly resulted in the deaths of dozens of civilians, the injury of many more, and the destruction of civilian property and of civilian infrastructure necessary to sustain life. Likewise, the impact on the Iraqi population of the most comprehensive sanctions regime ever devised, and the devastating humanitarian consequences to which wars and those sanctions have contributed, have been well documented by several reputable organizations, including the UN itself. In the face of all these threats, Amnesty's message remains the same: the obligation to protect the rights of the people of Iraq must be paramount.

Now we must also address the inevitable human rights and humanitarian consequences of the US-led war against Iraq. The concerns Amnesty raised prior to the onset of war are now playing out before us: civilian casualties caused by the use of indiscriminate weapons by both sides; indiscriminate attacks that fail to distinguish between military and civilian targets; the targeting of civilian infrastructure -- such as power plants necessary to pump clean water; violations of international humanitarian law; the need to protect the rights of refugees and internally displaced people; and increased unrest and repression throughout the region (and indeed around the world). The argument has been made by some that this war is being fought to protect freedom, either for the United States or for Iraq. Amnesty abhors the abuses heaped upon the Iraqi people, and certainly welcomes the development of concern for human rights by any government, but will not accept that new-found concern as a justification for further violations. We do not applaud rhetoric, but actions. When the policies and performance of governments reflect their stated commitment to human rights, then we will know that the words have meaning. So, in keeping with our long-standing record, our message to all parties to the current conflict remains the same: when making decisions about the conduct of this war and its aftermath, the protection of the rights of the people of Iraq must be paramount.