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Baghdad official who exposed executions flees
By Jonathan Steele
03/02/06 "The
Guardian" -- -- Faik Bakir, the director of the
Baghdad morgue, has fled Iraq in fear of his life after reporting
that more than 7,000 people have been killed by death squads in
recent months, the outgoing head of the UN human rights office in
Iraq has disclosed.
"The vast majority of bodies showed signs of summary execution -
many with their hands tied behind their back. Some showed evidence
of torture, with arms and leg joints broken by electric drills,"
said John Pace, the Maltese UN official. The killings had been
happening long before the bloodshed after last week's bombing of the
Shia shrine in Samarra.
Mr Pace, whose contract in Iraq ended last month, said many killings
were carried out by Shia militias linked to the industry ministry
run by Bayan Jabr, a leading figure in the Supreme Council for the
Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri).
Mr Pace said records, supported by photographs, came from Baghdad's
forensic institute, which passed them to the UN. The Baghdad morgue
has been receiving 700 or more bodies a month. The figures peaked at
1,100 last July - many showing signs of torture.
Reports of government-sponsored death squads have sparked fear among
many prominent Iraqis, prompting a rise in the number leaving the
country. Mr Pace said the morgue's director had received death
threats after he reported the murders. "He's out of the country
now," said Mr Pace, adding that the attribution of the killings to
government-linked militias did not come from Dr Bakir.
"There are other sources for that. Some militias are integrated with
the police and wear police uniforms," he said. "The Badr brigade [Sciri's
armed wing] are in the police and are mainly the ones doing the
killing. They're the most notorious."
Some Iraqis accuse the Mahdi army militia, linked to the radical
cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, of seizing and killing people. But Mr Pace
said: "I'm not as sure of the Mahdi army as I am of the others."
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
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