ALLAWI
LONDON, England (AP):
HUMAN RIGHTS abuses in Iraq are now as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein and could become even worse, the country's former interim Prime Minister said in an interview published yesterday.
"People are doing the same as Saddam's time and worse," Ayad Allawi told The Observer newspaper. "It is an appropriate comparison."
Allawi accused fellow Shi'ites in the Government of being responsible for death squads and secret torture centres and said the brutality of elements in the new security forces rivals that of Saddam's secret police.
APPEAL TO SUNNIS
Although Allawi is a Shi'ite, he is secular in his politics and is running separately from the Shi'ite parties in the December 15 election.
His comments appear to be an attempt to appeal to Sunni voters, who claim their community has been unfairly targeted by the Shi'ite-led security forces.
"People are remembering the days of Saddam. These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam and now we are seeing the same thing," the newspaper quoted him as saying.
For months, Sunni Arabs have been accusing the Interior Ministry of wholesale arrests and abuse of Sunnis in an attempt to find a handful of rebels.
TORTURE PROBE
The discovery by United States troops this month of up to 173 detainees - malnourished and some showing signs of torture - hidden in an Interior Ministry building in central Baghdad gave credence to those charges.
Iraq's Shi'ite-led government has promised an investigation and punishment for anyone guilty of torture.
