Document #1117004
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Author)
After the Ba'ath Party came to power in
1968, it advocated increased secularism and allegedly interfered
with religious processions. [ U. Zaher, "The Opposition" in
Saddam's Iraq: Revolution or Reaction?, by the Committee
Against Repression and for Democratic Rights in Iraq (CARDRI),
(London: Zed Books Ltd., 1986), p. 165.] The Shi'i clergy began to
organize opposition to the government to combat the weakening of
their authority with the formation of the Da'wa party in 1968-69.
Following major demonstrations against the regime in 1977, "eight
Shi'i dignitaries, five clergy and three laymen, were sentenced to
death and executed". [ Ibid.] In October 1978, Ayatollah Khomeini
(who was in exile in Iraq) was expelled to Iran and, according to
U. Zaher (Saddam's Iraq: Revolution or Reaction?), "early in
1980, after a number of grenade attacks in Baghdad blamed on the
Da'wa Party, tens of thousands of people were expelled to Iran, in
brutal conditions, under the pretext that they were of Iranian
origin". [ Ibid., p. 166.] The mass deportation of Iraqis of
Iranian descent is also mentioned in Iran and Iraq at War,
(Shahram Chubin and Charles Tripp, p. 291). According to Chubin, an
assassination attempt on the deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz,
allegedly by an Iraqi of Iranian origin, led to the execution of
Mohammad Baqr al-Sadr and the deportation of thousands of Shi'a
from Najaf, Karbala, and Al-Thawra, as well as to the initiation of
a campaign "to expel from Iraq any Iraqi who had even the remotest
connection with Iran, by birth, marriage or name". [ Shahram Chubin
and Charles Tripp, Iran and Iraq at War, (London: I.B.
Tauris & Co. Ltd., 1988), p. 27.] Shortly thereafter, the
Revolution Command Council made membership in the Da'wa Party
punishable by death. [ Ibid.]
A newsletter published by Amnesty
International in 1980 reported 257 alleged executions by the Iraqi
government in 1978 and 1979. Among the victims were Kurds, Shi'a
Muslims and members of the armed forces. [ Amnesty International,
Newsletter, July 1980, Vol. X, No. 7.]
2.
Please refer to the following
attachments:
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Committee Against Repression and for
Democratic Rights in Iraq, Saddam's Iraq: Revolution or
Reaction?, London: Zed Books Ltd., 1986, pp. 156-164;
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Ofra Bengio, "Shi'is and Politics in Ba'thi
Iraq", Middle East Studies, 21 (1), January 1985;
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Amnesty International, Amnesty
International Report 1989, New York: Amnesty International
Publications, 1989;
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Henry Degenhardt, Revolutionary and
Dissident Movements, London: Longman Group UK Ltd., 1988;
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Niall MacDermot, ed., "Human Rights in
Iraq", For the Rule of Law: The Review, International
Commission of Jurists, No. 41, December 1988;
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Alan Day and H. Degenhardt, Political
Parties of the World, Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1984;
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U.S. Department of State, Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988, Washington: U.S.
Government Printing Office, February 1989;
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Amnesty International, Torture in the
Eighties, London: Amnesty International Publications, 1984;
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Amnesty International, Report on
Torture, London: Duckworth in association with Amnesty
International Publications, 1975;
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George E. Delury, ed., World
Encyclopedia of Political Systems & Parties, New York:
Facts on File Publications, 1987;