Allawi says Iraq has death squads

Denied by Baghdad, U.S.: The former prime minister's claims may show a growing division in the country

The Boston Globe & Salt Lake Tribune | November 28, 2005By Farah Stockman

WASHINGTON - President Jalal Talabani of Iraq Sunday rejected as "nonsense'' allegations by former Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi that his government has set up death squads and torture centers as brutal as those under Saddam Hussein's regime.

The assertions of massive human rights abuses made by Allawi, a strong U.S. ally, provoked expressions of surprise and denial in Baghdad and Washington, where the Bush administration has said that freeing Iraq from a brutal dictator was one reason for the US invasion.

Some political observers said Allawi's allegations are further evidence of deepening polarization in Iraq that could lead to an ethnic civil war.

Allawi, who was appointed head of Iraq's interim government when the Interim Governing Council dissolved, told the Observer newspaper of London that "people are doing the same as [in] Saddam's time and worse.''

"It is an appropriate comparison,'' he is quoted as saying in Sunday's Observer. "People are remembering the days of Saddam. These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam and now we are seeing the same things.''

Allawi's allegations reflect a widespread fear among Iraq's Sunni minority, who benefited under Saddam's regime, of repression by Iraq's new government, which is controlled by Shiites and Kurds.

Allawi is a secular Shiite, but has deep ties to Sunni politicians and some former Baathists.

The former premier appeared to be addressing his remarks in part to the Sunni Arab minority in advance of the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections. Allawi is running as a secular candidate on a ticket that includes several prominent Sunnis.

Allawi spoke just weeks after up to 173 malnourished prisoners, mostly Sunnis, were discovered in a bunker run by the Ministry of the Interior. Some of the prisoners' bodies bore signs of torture.

Allawi's comments also come on the heels of a series of assassinations of Sunni clerics and tribal leaders, which some Sunnis believe have been perpetrated by Shiite death squads.

Last modified December 1, 2005