Skip to main content

Woman accuses Iraqi police of rape

Al Jazeera has reported statements by a Sunni woman that she was raped by three Shia-led police force members after she was detained over the weekend.
Iraq's prime minister ordered an investigation into the allegations made by the 20-year-old married woman on Monday, but a senior Iraq police official has disputed the claim.
In a statement, Nuri al-Maliki said he "has ordered that the severest punishment be meted out to everyone that's involved in the incident".
The victim said the ordeal began when police raided her house early on Sunday in the Amil district of western Baghdad while her husband was away.
She said the commandos accused her of cooking for Sunni fighters and took her to a police garrison where the attack occurred.
"One of them put his hand on my mouth so no one outside the room could hear me," she said in an AP videotape. "I told them 'I did not know that an Iraqi could do this to another Iraqi'."
She said a neighbour alerted US soldiers about the arrest and they released her after the attack.
Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver, a US spokesman, said he could not confirm any US role in her release but that the military "will support the Iraqi government in its investigation".
Potentially explosive
The allegations are potentially explosive at a time of rising tensions between Shias and Sunnis as the US begins a security operation to restore order in the capital.
Sunni leaders have been claiming the crackdown has focused on their neighbourhoods while leaving some Shia-led strongholds largely unaffected.
Sunnis routinely accuse the Shia-dominated security forces of using excessive force against them, including indiscriminate arrests and torture of prisoners.
The victim did not specify that her attackers were Shias, although they form the majority within the ranks of Baghdad police, especially elite commando units.
Hussein Ali Kamal, Iraq's deputy interior minister, disputed the allegation, saying "something like this could not happen because Iraqi forces are operating with US forces at all times".
Sunni outrage
On the other hand, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a top Sunni official and parliament speaker, said on Al-Jazeera, referring to al-Maliki: "By God, if you don't bring justice to this Muslim Iraqi woman, whom you should view as your sister or daughter ... history will curse us with eternal disgrace."
Rape victims rarely come forward in a conservative Islamic country because of the risk of public scorn and humiliation.
A woman who acknowledges being raped risks death at the hands of male relatives seeking to restore their family's honour.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Israeli school segregated Ethiopian students » Ethiopian Review

Israeli school segregated Ethiopian students » Ethiopian Review : "The placement of four Ethiopian girls in a separate class from their peers at a Petah Tikva grade school has sparked accusations of segregation on Tuesday morning following a report in Yediot Aharonot. According to ‘Hamerhav’ principal, Rabbi Yeshiyahu Granvich, complete integration of the girls was impossible. The reason being, said municipal workers, was that the students were not observant enough, nor did their families belong to the national-religious movement that the school was founded upon. Among the differences in the daily school life of the girls, a single teacher was responsible to teach them all of their subjects. Worse yet, the four were allotted separate recess hours and were driven to and from school separately. Such action has been labeled by observers as “apartheid.”"

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17902.htm

As implausible as this might sound to people who trust the government, be aware that despite his rhetoric, Bush has no respect for democracy. His neoconservative advisors have all been taught that it is their duty to circumvent democracy, as democracy does not produce the right decisions. Neoconservatives believe in rule by elites, and they regard themselves as the elite. The Bush regime decided that Americans would not agree to an invasion of Iraq unless they were deceived and tricked into it, and so we were. Indeed, democracy is out of favor throughout the Western world. In the UK and Europe, peoples are being forced, despite their expressed opposition, into an EU identity that they reject. British PM Tony Blair and his European counterparts have decided on their own that the people do not know best and that the people will be ignored. As former French PM Valery Giscard d’Estaing told the French newspaper, Le Monde, “Public opinion will be led to adopt, without knowing it, the propos...