Iraqi Kurds Yield to Rights Pressure

Officials pledge to rein in security forces following international scrutiny of abuse allegations.

Iraqi Kurds Yield to Rights Pressure

Officials pledge to rein in security forces following international scrutiny of abuse allegations.

Monday, 4 May, 2009
Prison had no place in Melko Abbas Mohammed’s plans.



“Someone who becomes a terrorist will do so knowing their actions could put them in jail,” he said. “I wanted to become a lawyer or a teacher.”



The 22-year-old was taking evening classes at a high school when he was arrested in March 2008 in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah. He was released in February this year after being cleared of involvement in a deadly car-bomb attack on one of the city’s upmarket hotels.



During his time in custody, Melko says he was beaten with cables, given electric shocks, suspended by his limbs and placed in solitary confinement.



Talking to IWPR more than two months after his release, he appears distracted, at times widening his eyes and gesturing helplessly, as if words alone cannot convey his message.



“I live in a country where the law questions only the weak. I am not happy, though I am free. I fear I will be arrested again,” he said.



Melko’s case is one of several listed by the London-based pressure group Amnesty International in a recent report accusing security services in Iraqi Kurdistan of abusing human rights.



While praising recent improvements in the region’s rights record, Amnesty says people continue to be tortured and held for years without charge in its prisons.



The leadership of the Kurdistan Regional Government, KRG, has responded to the report with a pledge to make its security services, known as the Asayish, more accountable under a new law. Amnesty has given a guarded welcome to the pledge, saying it hopes the “positive” words will be backed up by action.



Some Kurdish officials attacked the report when it was released in mid-April, accusing it of malice and distortion. A statement by the Regional Security Directorate in the Kurdish capital, Erbil, said it rejected Amnesty’s accusations as there had been “no human rights violations”.



Omar Abdul-Rahman, a lawyer and member of the KRG parliament’s human rights committee, said Amnesty had attempted to “defame” the region.



“This is an unjust and baseless report. Even if there are some shortcomings, they are not as serious as they claim,” he said. He said the KRG was building new facilities to compensate for a lack of purpose-built prisons. Most prisoners are currently kept in converted schools or army barracks.



Abdul-Rahman said his committee had investigated allegations of torture and abuse but had found no evidence of it, “The detainees were satisfied. In many prisons, they have libraries and computers.”



IWPR’s inquiries into Melko’s case indicate he has strong grounds to seek redress for his treatment by the security services.



Melko was arrested along with his 60-year-old mother nine days after a bombing at the Sulaimaniyah Palace Hotel that left two people dead and dozens injured. Their arrests coincided with the Kurdish festival of Newroz, celebrated annually with a ritual lighting of bonfires.



“My mother and I were good news for the security services - we were the wood for their bonfire,” he said. Hours after the arrest, the Asayish presented photographs of Melko and his mother at a televised press conference about the bombing.



Melko’s brother, Nahro Abbas Mohammed, learnt of the arrests from a Kurdish TV station in Switzerland, where he was living at the time. Alarmed to hear his family described as terrorists, he returned to Sulaimaniyah and began working for their release.



Melko says he too learnt only indirectly of the exact accusations against him. Several weeks into his incarceration, he was eating his meal from a newspaper on the floor of his prison cell, when he saw his photograph in an article about the hotel attack.



According to Amnesty, he was tortured repeatedly in prison. At one point, he reportedly required medical attention after a series of electric shocks prevented him from urinating for several days.



In November 2008, Melko and his mother were part of a group of eight suspects brought to trial for the attack. Both were acquitted. Another four individuals were sentenced to death, including a cousin of Melko’s who is alleged to have been a member of an Islamist group allied to al-Qaeda.



Despite their acquittal, Melko and his mother spent another three months in prison and were only released in February this year.



Qadir Hama-Jan, the new head of security for Sulaimaniyah province, told IWPR, “Local security bodies cannot hold someone who has been acquitted by the court. Holding people in such cases is a breach of the law.”



Hama-Jan was not in office at the time of Melko’s case. Asked whether Melko could sue over his prolonged detention, he said, “Let him ask for his right through the court. Whatever the court decides, we will implement... No one and no apparatus is above the law.”



Hama-Jan also said property confiscated from Mohammed’s family during the investigation – including a house belonging to his brother – would be returned to them.



Said Boumedoha, an Amnesty researcher who worked on the report into Iraqi Kurdistan, says Hama-Jan’s response is “very positive”. He also praised the KRG’s prime minister, Nechirvan Barzani, for a recent pledge to improve legal oversight of the security services.



However, Boumedoha said, “It remains to be seen whether these [words] will be followed by practical steps.”



He says the Asayish interrogators urgently require human rights training and “overnight” improvements in their methods are unlikely. The “crucial” test, he says, will come if they are placed under pressure by another sudden attack.



Thanks partly to its security apparatus, the Iraqi Kurdistan region has avoided the daily terror attacks that have plagued Iraq for years. However, activists and experts say such stability need not come at the cost of human rights.



Nouri Talabani, an independent deputy and member of the KRG’s parliament’s legal committee, said there is no justification for human rights violations, despite “attempts by neighbouring countries to destabilise security”.



Several experts say the failure to tackle violations by the security forces could ultimately harm Kurdish interests.



Dr Salar Basira, a professor of political sciences at Sulaimaniya University, warned that reports such as the one by Amnesty could lead to “a reduction in international support for the Kurds”.



Aland Mahwi, the director of local NGO Human Rights Information Bank, says the abuses carried out by Kurdish security forces “have largely ruined the Kurdish cause and image abroad”.



For Melko’s brother, Nahro, Iraqi Kurdistan has a long way to go before it cleans up its act. “If democracy is a school, then we are in first grade,” he said.



He says he does not want anyone to be punished for what happened to his brother and his mother in prison.



Instead, he is campaigning for the authorities to publicly announce their innocence – a move that would restore their “honour”. Right now, he says, the family is still suffering because of the stigma of terrorism.



News of Melko’s arrest was broadcast widely across Iraqi Kurdistan. But since his release more than two months ago, his family says IWPR is the only media outlet to have interviewed him.



Frman Abdulrahman and Rebaz Mahmud are IWPR-trained reporters. Roman Zagros is an IWPR Iraq editor.

Frontline Updates
Support local journalists