Gunmen killed a Sunni Arab candidate for parliament and militants tried to blow up a leading Shiite politician in separate attacks Tuesday, the last day of campaigning for Iraq's election.
Gunmen in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, killed Sunni Arab candidate Mezher al-Dulaimi while he was filling up his car at a gas station.
The polls will open Thuresday. Everyone hope this will be a step on the path to peace, but the likely result just assures more violence. The Shia religious parties are will continue to hold the majority, and that assures more Sunni resistance.
With the elections acting as a backdrop, more details are emerging about the torture at the detention centers run by the Shia controlled Interior Ministry.
Iraqi and U.S. officials found more than 120 victims of abuse in inspections of two Interior Ministry detention centers, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said Tuesday. He said the number of torture victims was far greater than authorities earlier disclosed.
Khalilzad also rejected suggestions from the Interior Ministry that the abuse found at the second prison in an inspection last week was relatively mild. The abuse was "far worse than slapping around," Khalilzad said.
According to an Iraqi official who U.S. authorities say had first-hand knowledge of the second Interior Ministry detention center, at least 12 detainees there suffered torture. Prisoners had their bones broken and their fingernails pulled out, were subjected to electric shocks and had burning cigarettes crushed into their necks and backs, said the Iraqi official. A 13th detainee there was starved to "bones and skin," the official said,
No wonder some of the Sunni population refuse to accept the new government.
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Iraq Torture Iraq Elections
1 comment:
See? The U.S. IS training Iraqis. We've set the example that torture is okay, as long as your cause is just --- or at least, if you think you can get away with it.
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