Information transmitted to the Government
348. By letter dated 10 November 1993 the Special Rapporteur informed the Government that he had received reports containing the names of the following persons alleged to have died in detention as a result of torture:
(a) Ali Sa'eed Al-Derbash, from Al-Musharah, died in June 1993 at the Al-Radhwania prison;
(b) Mohammad Salih, from Al-Kahia, died in March 1993 at the Al-Radhwania prison;
(c) Jaffar Lafta Al-A'Iwai, a resident of Al-Majediah in Al-Amarah; his corpse was handed over to his family on 7 July 1993;
(d) Attisla Ahmet Nimet was among a group of nine Turkmen arrested in September 1992 by policemen and later executed. His corpse, which allegedly bore marks of torture (an eye had been extracted), was handed over to his family on 15 July 1993.
Information received from the Government with respect to cases included in previous reports
349. On 11 December 1992 the Government replied to an urgent appeal transmitted on 3 December 1992 regarding widespread arrests which allegedly took place in southern Iraq in September and October 1992, in particular in Misan province.
350. According to the Government, the allegations received by the Special Rapporteur to the effect that the Iraqi authorities had ordered the local population of the marsh region in southern Iraq to evacuate that region, were false and totally unfounded. In that connection, reference should be made to the letter of 6 August 1992 from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, addressed to the President of the Security Council, which gave full details and refuted all the allegations made in that regard. The allegations that military units had launched ground attacks and engaged in arbitrary arrests and torture in the village of al-Salem near al-Mudaina in the governorate of Basra in the month of September, and that several thousand persons were detained in the governorate of Misan and others at the headquarters of the Fourth Army Corps in the town of Amara, and that some of them had been forcibly transferred to Baghdad, were likewise totally inaccurate and biased and had been circulated by well-known politically motivated bodies hostile to Iraq. All Iraqi citizens in the marsh region in southern Iraq were protected and cared for in the same way as the rest of the population. The allegations received were not new and were part of the campaign that the Iranian regime was launching against Iraq and the Iraqi people in an attempt to conceal the policy of interference in its internal affairs which Iran was pursuing.
Information submitted by the Government in connection with Commission resolution 1993/48
351. In pursuance of Commission resolution 1993/48, the Government of Iraq sent a note verbale on 29 July 1993 in which it reported on violence and terrorist acts allegedly committed by armed Kurdish groups in the north and by Iranian armed groups reportedly collaborating with "Iraqi outlaws and deserters" in the south of the country. It was reported that in the north, especially after the Government had withdrawn from this region following the uprisings, armed Kurdish groups had taken control of the economic, civil and public institutions, confiscating their equipment. According to this information, they had also confiscated machinery from dams, thereby paralysing irrigation projects, and had harassed the population and impeded their movement. Terrorist activities reportedly included the detonation of car bombs and the throwing of grenades. With regard to the situation in the south, the Government reported that armed groups had killed numerous officials and civilians, destroyed and looted economic and civil institutions, as well as food warehouses, and circulated false banknotes in the country.