Prominent Iraqis detained in Saddam's latest crackdown

[DAVID ALEXANDER]

LONDON (UPI) -- President Saddam Hussein's security forces renewed
their crackdown on Iraqi society last month, arresting for no obvious
reason scores of prominent citizens, including economists, lawyers,
retired army officers and former government officials, Amnesty
International reported Wednesday.
The London-based human rights group said it was issuing urgent
appeals on behalf of the detainees because it was ``deeply concerned for
their lives, as they are at great risk of torture, 'disappearance' in
custody or execution.''
The majority of those detained were Sunni Muslims from segments of
society previously thought to have been loyal to Saddam's regime. Some
of the individuals were from the Iraqi leader's hometown of Tikrit. None
were known to be associated with any Iraqi opposition group, Amnesty
said.
The detainees included former Labor and Social Affairs Minister 'Abd
al-Karim Hani, prominent oil economist Majid Adham and Tikrit lawyer
Jassem Mukhlis and his cousin Sufian Mukhlis.
While the reasons for the arrests were not immediately obvious, they
appeared to be part of a pattern of crackdowns since the end of the
1990-91 Gulf War that have targeted sectors of society traditionally
viewed as loyal to the Baghdad regime.
The expression of concern about the Iraqi crackdown coincided with
the release of a new Amnesty report charging Baghdad is still detaining
hundreds of people who were arrested by Iraqi troops in Kuwait during
the Gulf War.
The human rights group examined the cases of 140 people whose
whereabouts have been unaccounted for since the start of the conflict,
which led to a showdown between Iraq and a U.S.-led multinational
coalition of forces.
The report examines the disappearance of 129 Kuwaitis and 11 other
people, including individuals from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Syria,
Lebanon, Iran, as well as stateless Arabs who had settled in Kuwait but
were not recognized as citizens by the government.
While some of the individuals may have had military or governmental
connections, many others were ordinary civilians, including a mechanic,
a school employee and a student.
Thousands of Kuwaitis and people from other countries were arrested
by Saddam's forces during their seven-month occupation of Kuwait and
transferred to sites inside Iraq.
More than 7,000 prisoners of war and civilian detainees were
repatriated at the end of the conflict as required under the U.N.
Security Council resolutions ending the war. Another 59 prisoners were
repatriated after that date.
Since January 1992 Iraq has claimed it has released all people
detained during the conflict. Kuwait maintains that 650 of its civilians
arrested by Iraq are still being held prisoner.
Amnesty urged the Iraqi government to acknowledge it is still
detaining Kuwaitis and people of other nationalities arrested during the
war, and it urged Baghdad to clarify the legal basis under which it
continues to hold the prisoners.
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