Frequent executions, amputations and torture spread terror in Iraq, compounding the misery caused by Iraq's economic isolation, according to a new U.N. report.
The report by former Dutch Foreign Minister Max van der Stoel blamed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein for the situation and said little improvement is likely as long as he remains in control.Most people meet only half of their daily calorie needs, and the price of flour has multiplied 11,000 times in the past five years, van der Stoel said, appealing to Saddam to accept a Security Council plan to buy food and medicine with money from supervised oil sales.
For the past five years, van der Stoel has investigated Iraq for the U.N. Human Rights Commission, which starts its annual session Monday.
"All human rights are violated in Iraq," he said Friday.
The Baghdad government re-fuses to allow him in the country. In a letter to the United Nations, it accused him of "making random accusations . . . with the sole aim of harming the government of Iraq."
Executions and killings continued unchecked during 1995, van der Stoel wrote.
The death penalty was applied in a "wholly disproportionate way" against people convicted of petty crimes such as pickpocketing or illegally exchanging money, the report said.