UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...
UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...
UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...
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a) Before the Fall of the Former Regime<br />
- The systematic persecution of the Kurdish people (including through the Anfal<br />
campaign in 1988 and the gassing of civilians in Halabja in 1987, forced resettlement,<br />
destruction of villages and confiscation of properties) 745<br />
- The forced expulsion of non-Arab citizens from Kirkuk and other oil-rich areas as part<br />
of the Arabization campaign 746<br />
- The forced deportation and denaturalization of Feili Kurds in 1980<br />
- The systematic drainage of the marsh areas (along with bombing raids, torture,<br />
disappearances and mass executions) and the consequent destruction of the economic,<br />
social and cultural base of the Marsh Arabs after the 1991 Gulf War 747<br />
- Acts of violence committed by Shi’a opposition groups and the Government throughout<br />
the 1990s until the fall of the former regime;<br />
- The Government’s repression of the Shi’ite population including “systematic<br />
assassinations, attacks and threats carried out against the Shi’ite leadership” 748<br />
- Systematic persecution by the former regime of (perceived) political opponents,<br />
including through summary and arbitrary executions, torture and other forms of cruel<br />
and inhuman treatment or punishment (for example amputations and mutilations for<br />
ordinary criminal offenses), and enforced or involuntary disappearances. 749<br />
Crimes committed by various political groups and in particular their armed wings involved<br />
in violent resistance against the previous regime of Saddam Hussein (e.g. Kurdish<br />
Peshmerga, 750 Badr Corps, Dawa Party) and mostly directed against government officials<br />
and institutions would also need to be assessed in the light of the exclusion clauses, in<br />
particular Article 1F(b), as the acts in question may have been disproportionate to the<br />
alleged political objectives. Similar considerations would apply with regard to serious<br />
human rights violations against civilians as well as KDP and PUK military and political<br />
officials reportedly committed by several Kurdish Islamist groups such as the Islamic<br />
745<br />
See, for example, HRW, Genocide in Iraq – The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds, July 1993,<br />
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1993/iraqanfal/.<br />
746<br />
See “De-Arabization”.<br />
747<br />
See, for example, HRW, The Iraqi Government Assault on the Marsh Arabs, January 2003,<br />
http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/mena/marsharabs1.htm.<br />
748<br />
See, for example, UNHCHR, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the situation of<br />
human rights in Iraq, The Situation of Human Rights in Iraq, E/CN.4/1999/37, 26 February 1999, para. 20-23,<br />
http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/TestFrame/5d0983c1727027ac8025673f0056c924?Opendocu<br />
ment.<br />
749<br />
See, for example, Indict, Crimes committed by the Iraqi regime, http://www.indict.org.uk/crimes.php; UN<br />
Commission on Human Rights, Report of the Special Rapporteur, Andreas Mavrommatis, on the situation of<br />
human rights in Iraq, E/CN.4/2002/44, 15 March 2002, available in UNHCR’s Refworld at:<br />
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/refworld/rwmain?docid=3caaffc42; USDOS, Bureau of Democracy,<br />
Human Rights and Labor, 2001 Country Report on Human Rights Practices – Iraq, 4 March 2002,<br />
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/nea/8257.htm; various reports by AI, http://web.amnesty.org/library/<br />
eng-irq/index; and various reports by HRW, http://www.hrw.org/doc?t=mideast&c=iraq.<br />
750<br />
For an overview on the Peshmerga and its role throughout the various conflicts, see Michael Garrett<br />
Lortz, Willing to face Death: A History of Kurdish Military Forces – The Peshmerga – From the Ottoman<br />
Empire to Present-Day Iraq, Master of Arts Thesis in International Affairs, Florida State University,<br />
14 November 2005, http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-11142005-144616/.<br />
141