UN: Iraq an 'ever-deepening' crisis

A UN report issued on Oct. 11 outlined an "ever-deepening humanitarian crisis" in Iraq, with thousands of people driven from their homes each month, ongoing indiscriminate killings and "routine torture" in Iraqi prisons. The assessment by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, which covered a three-month period ending June 30, found that civilians were suffering "devastating consequences" from violence across the country. It documented more than 100 civilians allegedly killed by US-led forces during airstrikes or raids. The report described Iraq in more dire terms than last month's congressional testimony from top US military and embassy officials, which stressed improvements in the security situation. "The killings are still taking place, the torture is still being reported, the due process issues are still unresolved," said Ivana Vuco, a UN human rights officer in Baghdad. The first draft of the UN report was completed in August, but release of the final version was delayed for more than a month following a request by the US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan C. Crocker, according to a confidential account by a senior UN official. Among the most serious issues raised in the report is the treatment of detainees. The UN agency found that many detainees remained in detention for months without having their cases reviewed or with limited access to legal counsel. The report also expressed concerns about overcrowding and poor hygiene in detention centers, particularly pretrial holding cells run by the Interior Ministry in Baghdad. The agency said it "remained gravely concerned at continuing reports of the widespread and routine torture or ill-treatment of detainees." "In addition to routine beatings with hosepipes, cables and other implements, the methods cited included prolonged suspension from the limbs in contorted and painful positions for extended periods, sometimes resulting in dislocation of the joints; electric shocks to sensitive parts of the body; the breaking of limbs; forcing detainees to sit on sharp objects, causing serious injury and heightening the risk of infection; and severe burns to parts of the body through the application of heated implements," the report said. The UN report warned of an increased rate of violence against women, particularly "honor" killings, in the semiautonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. In the first half of the year, regional government statistics counted 23 women killed by "blunt objects," 195 by burning and 37 by gunfire.