Revenge killing in Iraq 'totally out of control'

Sectarian violence, armed militias and death squads have created a situation in Iraq where revenge attacks go unchecked, the United Nations’ top humanitarian official said in Geneva today.

Statistics show that 100 people are being killed in the country every day.

“Many of those are killed by gunshots or have been tortured to death,” Jan Egeland said. “Revenge killing seems to be totally out of control.”

Egeland, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said the “blunt, brutal violence” has targeted police, recruits, judges and lawyers. Women, he added, were increasingly being attacked in so-called honour killings.

In addition to the deaths, he said the “very worrying deterioration of conditions” for Iraqi civilians has resulted in 315,000 people being uprooted from their homes in the past eight months. He said sectarian violence and military operations were responsible.

Iraq’s Immigration Minister Abdul-Samad Sultan said more than 300,000 Iraqis had been displaced since the US-led invasion in 2003. Egeland, however, said his figure was since the February bombing of a Shiite shrine in the city of Samarra that sparked waves of violence

“Since then an average of some 9,000 people have been displaced every week,” Egeland said at the global body’s European headquarters in Geneva.

The UN Assistance Mission in Iraq warned last month that the number of Iraqi civilians killed in July and August hit 6,599, a record high number that was far greater than initial estimates had suggested, pointing to the grave sectarian crisis gripping the country.

It offered a grim assessment across a range of indicators, reporting evidence of torture, unlawful detentions, the growth of sectarian militias and death squads.

The United Nations’ chief anti-torture expert also warned last month that torture may now be more widespread than it was under Saddam’s regime, with militias, terrorist groups and government forces disregarding rules on the humane treatment of prisoners.