(08/18/99) -- Human Rights Watch today criticized the Austrian government for releasing a senior Iraqi leader accused of genocide, mass murder and torture.
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Austria's callous decision is a slap in the face to the tens of thousands of Kurdish victims of Iraq's policy of genocide. Austria has placed expediency above the law and politics above justice. The ball is now in Jordan's court.
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Izzat Ibrahim is the deputy commander-in-chief of Iraq's Armed Forces. During Iraq's 1988 campaign of genocide against the northern Kurdish population, Ibrahim helped execute Iraq's "policy of mass murder," according to a Human Rights Watch book on that campaign. After the 1991 Gulf War and the ensuing Kurdish uprising, Ibrahim was the commander for the north, with full authority to "reward and punish."
"Austria's callous decision is a slap in the face to the tens of thousands of Kurdish victims of Iraq's policy of genocide," said Reed Brody, the Advocacy Director of Human Rights Watch. "Austria has placed expediency above the law and politics above justice. The ball is now in Jordan's court."
As parties to United Nations treaties on genocide and torture, both Austria and Jordan have legal duties to bring Ibrahim to justice.
