Iraq (Republic of Iraq)

In 2005, with the first free legislative elections in Iraq's history, the end of Saddam Hussein and Baath regime's eve has been clearly outlined. The number of victims during Saddam's dictatorship, which began in 1979, ranges from 300,000 (according to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq - CPA) to 500,000 (according to human rights organizations), up to more than one million of executed and buried in common graves, according to Iraqis political parties. The executions, as tortures and others cruel punishments (mark of the forehead, amputation of ears, hands, tongue), have been an ordinary practice, contemplated for an endless series of offences, absolutely non proportional to the punishment, included the simple criticism of the regime. Suspended by the CPA, death penalty was reintroduced by the interim Government of Iyad Allawi, for murder, abduction, rape and drugs traffic, and later on also for terrorism and incitement to terrorism. In 2006, 54 condemns and 22 executions have been registered. Terrorist operations by Al-Qaeda, aiming to establish an Islamic State ruling on the Sunni population, constitute one of the main threats to the country stability. Al-Qaeda acted mainly in the western district of Anbar and in Diyala governorates, at Iran's border. Both governorates present a majority of Sunni population.

Last November, Iraqi premier Al-Maliki released statistics according to which violence in Iraq has been drastically decreasing: terrorist attacks had fallen a whopping 77% from last year, last September the number of civilian killed was 29% lower than August, the refugees fleeing through the Syrian border reduced from 20,000 to 600. In a recent article, Fouad Ajami included among the factors which led to these positive results, the presence of the 160,000 American soldiers, since last January guided by General Petraeus. Ajami claims that Iraqi population understands the importance of the American presence much more than the mass media show us. The drop in violence, especially in the Anbar, must be also reconnected to the recent cooperation between the American troops and the tribes' heads in that district, as well as to the increasing willingness of the civilian population to actively collaborate against Al-Qaeda. Even if sporadic, the violence continues to take lives, and at the beginning of September, Sheikh Sattar Abu Reisha, the leader of the Sunni opposition to the fundamentalists, was killed by Al-Qaeda. Another external contribution to Iraq's instability is provided by Iran, who finances and trains fundamentalist Shiite militias, as those of Muqtada al-Sadr.

As reported by NGOs, the lack of law an order in the country led also to several cases of abuse of power by the authorities, torture in prison, illegal imprisonments. Human Right Watch attests that the Kurdish Federal Region's Government undertook positive efforts in order to revise cases of prisoners arrested without specific charges, releasing thus hundreds of convicted.

The constitution establishes Islam as State religion, securing religious freedom to the others faiths. Last April, Minister of Interior canceled Regulation 358 of 1975, which prohibits the issuance of a nationality identity card to those claiming the Baha'i faith. The end of Saddam and baathist ideology eve bestowed hope in a possible improving in the condition of the few Jews left in Iraq and in a approaching to Israel. But, Government instability and sectarian struggles just increased the vulnerability of the Jewish minority. In March 2006, has been approved a law which prevents from the Jews who in past have lost their Iraqi citizenship, to regain it. Index of the constant intolerance towards the Jewish State is the tragedy of the Iraqi politician Mithal Al-Alusi. Following his visit to Israel in 2004, he has been expelled from the “Iraqi National Congress”. On February 2005, he survived a car ambush which killed his two sons and one of his bodyguards. In 2004, Al-Alusi founded the liberal and secular “Party of the Iraqi Nation”, whose Deputy Secretary General is Adil Aljuboory.