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The
War on Terror: Target Iraq | The Use of Terror during Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait
The Use of Terror during Iraq’s invasion
of Kuwait
"Oh great Iraqi people...the great jewel, the mother
of all battles between victorious right and the evil that
will certainly be defeated has begun."
Saddam Hussein 1991
Historical Background
Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait on August 2,1990. In his July 17,1990
speech, Saddam Hussein justified the invasion by accusing the
Kuwait's Royal family of damaging Iraq's economy by exceeding
its OPEC production quota, and purposefully forcing down the price
of oil.
Following the invasion, Iraq announced the creation of a nine man
'Provisional Free Kuwait Government'. Six days following the invasion,
the Provisional Government was disbanded and Iraq announced the
annexation of Kuwait. On August 28, 1990, Kuwait was declared
Iraq's 19th Province and the border area was incorporated as an
extension of the province Basra. Al-Hassan al Majid, Iraq's Minister
of Local Government and cousin of Saddam Hussein was appointed
Governor of Kuwait.
The Political Use of Terror by Iraq in Kuwait
Following the invasion of Kuwait, Iraqi forces used widespread
political terror to suppress all forms of internal dissent. Between
August and December 1990, hundreds of Kuwaitis "disappeared"
after detention; thousands were arrested without trial. As in
Iraq itself, the death penalty was imposed and hundreds of civilians,
including children, were reported executed [9].
In the first days of the invasion, Amnesty International in London
received reports that hundreds of Kuwait's military personnel
had been rounded up and held in make-shift detention centers in
Kuwait City. It soon became apparent that, as Iraq entrenched
its hold in Kuwait, the Iraqi Secret Police were increasing their
search for military personnel in house-to-house round-ups. Relatives
were tortured during interrogation to reveal those hiding from
arrest. In all, 6-7,000 Kuwaiti personnel were arrested and transferred
to prisons in Iraq.
"Iraqi terror was selective, to some extent. The elite Republican
Guard that spear headed the invasion behaved with professional
soldier's discipline. Torture centers sprang up under the control
of 7000 agents of Iraq's Mukhabarat ... The worst brutality came
early in the occupation ... Poorly trained Iraqi conscripts and
volunteers of the People's Army acted without restraint"
[10]
During the first four months of Iraq's operation, over 300,000
Kuwaitis managed to flee. Much of the evidence concerning the
use of terror by the Ba'athist regime as a means of subjugating
the entire populace, derives from their testimonies.
Scores of Iraqi exiles who had been living in Kuwait, after fleeing
Iraq's Secret Police, were also rounded up by the Security Services.
The majority arrested were Shia Muslims, with links to the opposition
group al-Da'wa al-Islamiya (Islamic Call), membership of which
has been a capital offence in Iraq from 1980. As resistance to
Iraqi occupation within Kuwait grew, an even more stringent use
of political terror was necessitated. By October 23rd 1990, a
delegate of the Kuwaiti Red Crescent recalled:
"...Young men were shot near their homes and in
front of their families, this method was used by the occupiers
to terrorize the people and to eliminate the young men
on the pretext that they worked in the resistance ...
Arrests, interrogation, torture, punishments and killings
were carried out in an arbitrary and whimsical manner
[11]..."
Police stations, public buildings and the private homes of deported
military men were used to hold those detainees not sent to Baghdad.
The Law and Literature faculties of Kuwait University were transformed
into makeshift prisons, as was the Iraqi Embassy building. Random
arrest, interrogation and torture became the everyday norm. Terror
was used to create a climate of fear and – as in Iraq -
provided the political means to subjugate a nation.
Most Kuwaiti detainees, interviewed after their release, stated
that they were not brought before a judicial authority during
the period of their investigation. All were held incommunicado.
Released detainees were expected to:
- sign a declaration of allegiance to Saddam Hussein;
- provide payment to their interrogating officials (televisions,
videos, etc.);
- provide detailed information on themselves and their families.
The Iraqis killed so many young men that bodies were transferred
to a skating rink for short-term preservation. The fate of those
detainees who had been too badly mutilated by torture was continued
detention, a bar on leaving Kuwait, or execution.
Families were not provided with any official notification of arrest,
place of detention or informed of the movement of detainee relatives.
Those arrested effectively "disappeared". The bodies
of those executed were often found in the streets of Kuwait, or
dumped on the door-steps of their homes.
"On average, five or six new bodies were brought
to the hospital each day. All were males... many bore
marks of torture… [including]... the extinguishing
of cigarettes on the body; burning of the skin with heated
metal rods; application of electricity; cutting off of
the tongue and ear; gouging out of the eyes and the breaking
of limbs. In most of these cases, the immediate cause
of death appeared to be a single shot..." [12]
In the early days of the invasion, many Kuwaitis turned to the
Red Crescent to help trace their relatives. The Kuwaiti Red Crescent,
prior to the invasion, had professional links with its Iraqi counterpart.
On September 16,1990, six Red Crescent workers were arrested and
the Kuwaiti and Iraqi Red Crescent were merged. Individual investigations
over the fate of detainee were suppressed.
"A young man went to enquire about his cousin who
was held in al-Rigga police station. When he kept insisting
he was taken inside the police station. He was stripped...
and told to pray. When he kneeled down they started to
kick and beat him. He was suspended from a fan for several
hours and was told to sit on a bottle. He was released
several days later with a message to everyone, that this
is the punishment for those who ask about any detainee...
This happened in the first week of September." [13]
Seventeen days after the invasion of Kuwait, Iraq ordered all western
foreign nationals in Kuwait to assemble in three hotels in Kuwait
City: the Regency Palace, the Meridian and the International Hotel.
Subsequently, it was announced that these nationals would be transferred
for detention at key military and industrial sites in order to
deter military attacks against Iraq.
On August 20, British and French government sources confirmed that
82 Britons and six French nationals had been moved from hotels
in Kuwait to unknown destinations. A further 200 British and American
nationals were transferred from Iraq to Kuwait and were detained
in Baghdad.
Hundreds of foreign nationals were rounded up in Kuwait City and
taken to Iraq; all were denied Consular access. Foreign diplomats
were stripped of their diplomatic immunity. In the third week
of August Iraq announced that some thirteen thousand Western,
Soviet and Japanese nationals who had been working in Iraq and
Kuwait would not be allowed to leave, until the U.S. withdrew
its troops from South Arabia. On August 25, the death penalty
for Kuwaitis harboring western nationals was introduced.
Torture and Maltreatment of Detainees in Kuwait
The Amnesty International report of December of 1990 is the most
comprehensive documentation of the torture and ill treatment of
detainees in Kuwait. This document, entitled "Iraq/Occupied
Kuwait - Human Rights Violations Since August 2, 1990", provides
a detailed account of Iraq's political use of terror against civilians,
Kuwaiti and otherwise, under a state of siege.
The terror inflicted upon detainees was designed to terrorize the
population at large and to discourage any form of political opposition
to Hussein. Examples of the many forms of torture documented include:
beating, burning of the skin, sexual torture, beating the soles
of the feet (falaqa), kicking, electric shock, mock execution,
exposure to hot and cold temperatures and suspension from rotating
ceiling fans.
In all, Amnesty lists over 35 methods of torture and ill-treatment
by Iraq in Kuwait. The politics of terror utilized in Kuwait were
consistent with methods developed in Iraq over many years. This
consistency can be most clearly seen by comparing Amnesty's report
on Iraq's political terror in Kuwait with earlier Amnesty documents
regarding the use of terror in Iraq itself.
As in Iraq itself, the death penalty was used as the ultimate punishment,
the final tool of political terror. Within a month of the invasion
of Kuwait the death penalty was introduced for three offenses:
- the hoarding of food;
- looting; and
- the harboring of western nationals.
By December 1990, Iraq had only officially confirmed the execution
of 18 people for looting.
- The first case was reported two days after the offense became
capital. A body of an Iraqi soldier was found hanging from
a crane in Kuwait City. A placard had been placed around his
neck warning that, "this is the punishment for those
who steal the riches of the people."
- Photographs of other men further executed for looting were
shown on Iraqi television from August 17-21, 1990. On November
30, 1990, seven men were publicly hanged in Kuwait. Extra-judicial
killing was used as a deterrent to political activity, as
well as a means of wiping out Kuwaiti military personnel.
"Looting" became a pretext for the use of political
terror.
- Scores of hangings are alleged to have been carried out on
the grounds of Kuwait University in late August and early
September of 1990. It is difficult to ascertain with any accuracy
the numbers of people killed in Kuwait by Iraq. The estimated
total has been set at over 1,000 Kuwaiti dead.
Iraq demanded that families of Kuwaiti "offenders" pay
the cost of the bullets used for executions. This practice of
asking families to cover "state expenses" for executions
is common in Iraq and was first documented during the Iraq-Iran
war.
In addition to killings by execution and torture, as described
above, a number of deaths also resulted from deprivation of medical
treatment. These were carried out in the context of widespread
removal of medicines and medical equipment by Iraqi forces in
Kuwait.
Summary
A clear picture emerges of the political use of terror in Kuwait.
Essentially, the model of terror carried out by Iraq is an extension
of that used by the Ba'athist regime against its own people, using
the same methods and institutions. However, in Iraq itself the
institutions and instruments of terror developed over a number
of years, whereas in Kuwait they were put in place in a short
period of time, as the invasion of a foreign country necessitated
an immediate and more draconian implementation to achieve the
same objectives.
In Kuwait, the well-oiled Iraqi terror mechanism thus operated
at a breakneck pace to produce similar control to that achieved
in Iraq, in a matter of weeks, not years. From August 2 1990,
until Iraq's withdrawal, Kuwait was subjected to the full force
of Iraq's institutions of terror. The Ba'athist regime in Kuwait
successfully removed Kuwaiti military personnel and killed its
political opponents. Many Kuwaitis disappeared; some were detained
and tortured; others were summarily executed. Compliance with
the invading regime was the only means of survival, and control
was successfully achieved.
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