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roachboy · 03-02-2006, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Gangs 'kill freely' in Iraq chaos
Hundreds of bodies showing signs of torture or execution arrive at the Baghdad mortuary each month, a senior UN official has told the BBC.

John Pace, until recently UN human rights chief in Iraq, told the BBC News website that up to 75% of the corpses showed signs of extrajudicial death.

Mr Pace blamed an "endemic" breakdown of security for increasing violence.

"Anyone with a gun who is reasonably well organised can do whatever they want with impunity," he said.

Armed groups often threatened mortuary staff, aiming to stop autopsies and suppress evidence, Mr Pace said.

Iraq has seen a jump in apparently sectarian violence since the bombing last week of a Shia Muslim shrine in the city of Samarra.

But Mr Pace played down suggestions that Iraq was heading towards civil war, blaming a political vacuum and the collapse of law and order - rather than a generalised Shia-Sunni split - for the escalating violence.

'Chaotic'

Mr Pace described the Baghdad mortuary as a "barometer" of the situation in the city at any one time.

"The numbers at the morgue are symptomatic and indicative of the breakdown and lack of any protection of individual," he said.

Between 780 and 1,110 corpses had been brought in every month over the past year, Mr Pace said.

Two-thirds to three-quarters bore signs of death by deliberate gunshot or signs of torture before death, he added, describing daily life as "chaotic".

He confirmed that the head of Baghdad's mortuary had left his position temporarily amid fears for his security.

Despite threats, most staff continued to perform autopsies, Mr Pace said.

Failures

Mr Pace's comments came as Sunni officials said that dozens of Sunni preachers had been killed in a wave of violence since the bombing of Samarra's al-Askari shrine.

Elsewhere, talks on the formation of a new national government were delayed.

Fears have grown among Iraqis that Shia death squads are operating with semi-official government approval.

While highly critical of Shia militias such as the Badr brigade, linked to Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, Mr Pace said that Iraq's real problems stemmed from a lack of political authority, a breakdown of law and order and a weak judicial system.

"There is no deliberate intention to suppress information [about executions and killings]," he said.

"More likely it is considered as something [the government] would rather not admit to."

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4765854.stm

well, there's chaos.
at what point does this tip over into something else?

Quote:

Iraq government talks in disarray
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari has cancelled a meeting with senior political leaders, apparently to protest against a campaign to oust him.

Kurdish and Sunni Arab leaders are unhappy with Mr Jaafari, and have said they will not join a national unity government with him at its head.

This is the latest crisis to hit attempts to form a new government.

Iraq is undergoing one of its worst periods of violence, with 18 people killed in attacks on Thursday.

At least 400 people have been killed since 22 February, when one of Iraq's holiest Shia shrines at Samarra was bombed.

A senior UN official has blamed an "endemic" breakdown of security for the increasing bloodshed.

John Pace, until recently UN human rights chief in Iraq, told the BBC News website that 75% of the hundreds of bodies that arrived at the Baghdad mortuary each month showed signs of torture or execution.

Last month, an investigation was launched into claims by the US military that an Iraqi interior ministry "death squad" has been targeting Sunni Arab Iraqis.

In other developments:

Gunmen fire on the car of one of the leaders of Iraq's main Sunni Arab alliance, Sheikh Adnan al-Dulaimi, killing a bodyguard

At least nine members of the Iraqi security forces die in an attack on a checkpoint near the northern city of Tikrit

A bomb blast inside a minibus kills at least five people and wounds eight in Baghdad's Shia district of Sadr City

At least four people are killed and 11 wounded when a bomb explodes at a vegetable market in Zafaraniya, south-east Baghdad

'Regrettable'

Iraqi political leaders are coming under concerted pressure from world leaders, who believe the failure to form a new government is partly responsible for fuelling the violence.

The Kurdish and the Sunni groups think that he is not appropriate, and they cannot form a cabinet with him as he is not neutral
Mahmoud Uthman

Mr Jaafari had called the meeting to discuss ways to resolve disagreements and to counter the recent upsurge in sectarian bloodshed.

But the meeting was cancelled without the government giving a reason.

A member of one of his coalition partners, the Kurdistan Alliance, criticised the decision.

"The cancellation of this meeting is a regrettable thing, because such meetings are essential under the current situation," Mahmoud Uthman said.

Mr Uthman suggested the meeting was cancelled because the leaders of the main Kurdish, Sunni Arab and secular parties had asked the Shia-led United Iraqi Alliance to withdraw Mr Jaafari's nomination for the premiership.

"The Kurdish and the Sunni groups think that he is not appropriate, and they cannot form a cabinet with him as he is not neutral," he said.

Criticism

Mr Jaafari has been widely criticised for poor performance in government.

He has also come under fire for appointing Shia politicians to the main ministries in his government, and for allegedly not intervening to stop the interior ministry from operating secret death squads targeting Sunni Arabs.

But last month the United Iraqi Alliance, which won 128 out of 275 seats in December's parliamentary elections, voted to nominate Mr Jaafari for the premiership.

He beat his nearest rival, Adel Abdel Mahdi of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, by just one vote, largely due to the support of radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr.

The Kurdistan Alliance made it clear they opposed the UIA's choice, but they did not stop talks on forming a coalition government.

Mr Jaafari has called for the formation of a national unity government encompassing all of Iraq's ethnic, religious and political groups.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/4765456.stm

the breakdown of attempts to form a more viable government in iraq cannot be good.

at this point, the administration apparently feels the need to generate some good-sounding news--so off cowboy george goes to india to sign a nuclear technology deal with india that will not get through congress. off the front page goes anything about iraq. so apparently the "information strategy" geared toward winning the "hearts and minds" of the american public is to ignore iraq to the greatest possible extent.
that'll help.