ACCESSION NUMBER:00000

FILE ID:97041101.NNE

DATE:04/11/97

TITLE:11-04-97  UN INVESTIGATOR CALLS FOR END TO BAGHDAD'S TOTALITARIAN REGIME



TEXT:

(Expresses particular concern about disappearances) (430)

By Wendy Lubetkin

USIA European Correspondent



Geneva -- Max van der Stoel, the U.N. special rapporteur charged with

investigating human rights violations in Iraq, told the U.N.

Commission on Human Rights April 11 that there will be no hope of

improvement for the Iraqi people unless there is a change of

government in Baghdad.



"This is really one of the worst dictatorships the world knows," he

said later at a press conference.



In his address to the Commission, van der Stoel said Baghdad's

reputation is "one of long-standing, widespread and systematic

violation of human rights."



"So long as the politico-legal order in Iraq remains as it is, the

government will never be in compliance with its international

obligations and the people will not be free to live in dignity or to

develop fully their aspirations," van der Stoel told the Commission.

"Fundamentally, the politico-legal order must change. The government

must become based upon the genuine will of the people, it must follow

the Rule of Law and it must respect human rights and fundamental

freedoms."



Van der Stoel's report states that "Iraq is a dictatorial,

totalitarian State which allows no political dissent. Freedoms of

opinion, expression, association and assembly do not exist in Iraq."



Van der Stoel expressed particular concern about the 16,199 cases of

disappearances which have been recorded in Iraq since the late 1980s.

That figure does not even include the more than 600 Kuwaitis and

third-country nationals who are missing following Iraq's illegal

occupation of Kuwait, he noted. On disappearances, "Iraq has decidedly

the worst record in the world," van der Stoel told the Commission.



Despite the high number of disappearances, Baghdad has made no attempt

to assist suffering families in discovering the fate of their loved

ones. He pointed out that Iraq has "so far failed even to establish a

national commission to which families could address themselves."



Van der Stoel, who has reported on human rights in Iraq for the

Commission for six years, said he saw no sign of improvement in Iraq's

human rights record during the past year.



Van der Stoel's report is available on the World Wide Web at:

http://www.unhchr.ch/ This is the first year that the United Nations

has made the reports to the Commission on Human Rights and other

public documents of the Commission available over the Internet as soon

as they are released.

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