-Our prison staff could do well with some basic human rights training, said Imad Ahmad, Deputy Prime Minister of the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) Administration of one of the two self-determined Kurdish regions within Iraq. Mr. Ahmad visited the Norwegian Council for the Rights of the Kurdish People (RKR), one of the organisations in the Norwegian Human Rights House in Oslo last week. (23-AUG-05)
Norwegian police has been involved not only in the establishment of a modern police force in Iraq, but also in human rights training of Turkish police and prison officers. The well-attended meeting, however, with representatives of five different human rights organisations, including HRH and guests from SOS Racism, Norwegian People´s Aid and Norwegian Refugee Council, soon brought the attention to the most controversial case relating to Norwegian-Kurdish relations. The reason why the treatment of prisoners in Kurdish prisons has become an issue in Norway is that Norwegian investigative officers, during the court case against Mr. Mullah Krekar, an Islamist guerrilla leader from Kurdistan, but settled in Norway, found that testimonies against Mr. Krekar were allegedly forced with the help of torture. Hence, the entire case had to be abandoned.
Crimes against humanity
Mr. Krekar is suspected of having committed crimes against humanity, including the sanctioning of torture and executions during the time his organisation Ansar al-Islam controlled the Halabja area within Kurdish Iraq. Ansar al-Islam, and thus also Mr. Krekar himself, are also suspected of having nurtured close contacts with Osama bin-Laden and his more famous organisation al-Quaida. While Norwegian and international police have focused on this latter connection, several Norwegian human rights organisations, among tem the Norwegian Council for the Rights of the Kurds, have requested a stronger focus also on the alleged crimes against humanity.
Women´s rights still contentious
On the issue of women´s rights, Mr. Ahmad (left) said that PUK does not approve of polygamy, and will give women whatever protection they need. Even so, he also admitted that men are very rarely punished for whatever crimes they commit against women. This also goes for infidelity, which remains to be considered a moral sin and thus also a crime, legally speaking, within Kurdish law. Mr. Ahmad added that PUK does not state anything explicit on this issue in its party programme, but admitted to supporting the continued punishment of infidelity. He also admitted that men are rarely investigated for this crime and thus usually get away with it without any kind of punishment. One should think, though, that infidelity is equally distributed among the sexes, but during its visit to Kurdistan late May this year, RKR´s clear impression was that many women are being punished for this crime. RKR has observed this also during previous visits, but adding to the complexity of this issue comes the fact that some women actually seek refuge within the prisons to protect themselves from the capital punishment expected to be executed by their own families, to restore the family´s honour.
