Executions and disappearances

On December 2, 2002, the British Foreign Office unveiled a 23-page human rights dossier on Iraq and Saddam Hussein outlining "the barbarity of his regime". The report stated that in Iraq´s northern Kurdish region, 100,000 Kurds were killed or disappeared in 1987-88 alone. Hundreds of Shi´ite Muslim civilians, who make up more than half the population, died when security forces fired on a peaceful demonstration in early 1999, it said. Hands Off Cain counted 214 executions in 2002 through reports by various Iraqi media and opposition sources. In 2001, the total was 179. Information concerning the numerous executions in Iraq was reported not only by Western governments and opposition groups, but also by the special rapporteur on Iraq to the UN Human Rights Commission Andreas Mavrommatis. In a report presented on April 1, 2002, Mavrommatis cited testimony of the execution of 4,000 people from 1998 to 2001 and the beheading of 130 women between June 2000 and April 2001. The severed heads of thirty of these women, beheaded in October 2000, were left on their own doorsteps. However human rights groups said that many of the victims were not prostitutes, as alleged by the regime, and had been beheaded for political motives. Saddam´s eldest son, Uday, is considered a big fan of public executions, and together, with his brother, Qusay, has signed an estimated 10,000 execution orders.