STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG

 Times of India
 Saturday 19 February 2000

    Iraq executed 26 political prisoners.
CAIRO: A human rights group linked to the Iraqi
opposition party claimed Friday that 26 political
prisoners were recently executed in a prison near
Baghdad and 13 others died of torture and neglect in a
detention center.

The report by the Center for Human Rights -- with ties
to the Iraqi Communist Party -- could not be
independently confirmed. The Iraqi government does not
comment on such allegations.

The alleged executions took place January 27 in Abu
Gharib prison and the victims were buried in a Baghdad
cemetery, the group said in a statement faxed to The
Associated Press in Cairo.

The center listed the names of 26 victims and their
home provinces. The group also reported that in
December, 1999 and January this year, 13 people it
described as political detainees died in a Baghdad
detention center as a result of torture, neglect and
malnutrition.

The victims were among at least 580 other detainees
held in the compound, known as the Makaseb detention
center.

The officials in charge of the Makaseb center,
reportedly built last year, are personally selected by
President Saddam Hussein and are affiliated with the
military intelligence, headed by Saddam's son, Qusai,
the group said.

Iraqi prisons, including Abu Gharib, are overcrowded.
Former minister of labor and social affairs Abdel-Aziz
Mohammed Saleh al-Sayegh was sacked last June for
saying that prison conditions were appalling.
(Associated Press)