In the paper edition, page 5, Saturday 11 July, of Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad, there is an article by Carolien Roelants about mass murder of gay people in Iraq since George W. Bush invaded that country in 2003.
Sometimes, in writings on this issue, the mainly oppositional Shi’ite militia of Muqtada Sadr is blamed for most of this violence.A well connected United Nations official told me in April that since the beginning of the year hundreds of homosexuals had been murdered. …
The anti-homosexual violence started after the United States-British invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the deposition of Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein, [Ali] Hilli [of the London based Iraqi LGBT organization] says, was a tyrant. He himself fled Iraq before 2003. However, Saddam Hussein’s government was not religious and there was a reasonable measure of sexual freedom.
“Al-Sadr rejects this kind of violence … and everybody using violence [against gay people] will be considered not to belong to us”, Abtahi [Sadr movement spokesman], said, according to AFP news agency …See also here. And here.[Hilli] says that also the Badr brigade, which used to be the armed branch of the influential [part of the pro United States government coalition in Iraq] Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution, which in the meantime mainly has become part of the government security services, murders homosexuals. …
Hilli: “The government does not care. Even the Minister for Human Rights does not do anything. She said that that she was fed up with people talking all the time about homosexuals being murdered.”
A major public inquiry is to be launched tomorrow into the brutal death in British army custody of Iraqi hotel receptionist Baha Mousa: here. And here. And here. And here.
A Video of a British soldier screaming abuse at hooded Iraqi detainees has been played at the public inquiry into the brutal death of hotel receptionist Baha Mousa: here. And here.
The inquiry into the death of an Iraqi hotel worker at the hands of British troops has heard that he was subjected to interrogation tactics branded illegal by the government’s chief law adviser more than 30 years before, here.
Doctors alleging that Iraq weapons inspector Dr David Kelly was “assassinated” have demanded a proper inquest into the scientist’s death: here. Thirteen specialist doctors have launched a legal campaign to demand an inquest into the death of leading weapons inspector and whistleblower Dr. David Kelly in July 2003: here.
Iraq’s Weakened Unions Fight Foreign Oil Firms: here. And here.
