Human rights abuses in Iraq are now as bad as they were under former president Saddam Hussein and are even in danger of eclipsing his record, according to the country's first prime minister after the fall of Saddam's regime.
In a damning indictment of Iraq's escalating human rights catastrophe, Ayad Allawi accused fellow Shiite Muslims in the government of being responsible for death squads and secret torture centers. The brutality of elements in the new security forces rivals that of Saddam's secret police, he says.
Allawi, who was prominent in the anti-Saddam opposition and was prime minister until April this year, made his remarks in an interview, as further hints emerged on Saturday that US President George W. Bush is planning to withdraw up to 40,000 US troops from the country next year, when Iraqi forces will be capable of taking over their role.
"People are doing the same as [in] Saddam Hussein's time and worse," Allawi said. "It is an appropriate comparison. People are remembering the days of Saddam. These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam Hussein and now we are seeing the same things."
"We are hearing about secret police, secret bunkers where people are being interrogated. A lot of Iraqis are being tortured or killed in the course of interrogations. We are even witnessing Shariah courts based on Islamic law that are trying people and executing them," he said.
Unless immediate action was taken to dismantle militias that continued to operate with impunity, and that had widely infiltrated the police and other institutions, "the disease infecting [the Ministry of the Interior] will become contagious and spread to all ministries and structures of Iraq's government," he said.
In a chilling warning to the West over the danger of leaving behind a disintegrating Iraq, Allawi said: "Iraq is the centerpiece of this region. If things go wrong, neither Europe nor the US will be safe."
His uncompromising comments came on the eve of Saddam's latest court appearance on charges of crimes against humanity and seem certain to fuel the growing sense of crisis over Iraq, both in the country as well as in the US, where political support for the occupation continues to plummet.
Allawi was selected to serve as prime minister of the first interim government, ahead of last January's first national elections.
Admired in both Downing Street and the White House as a non-sectarian politician committed to strong centralized government representing all Iraqis, Allawi's list struggled in last January's elections, where it was eclipsed by Shiite religious parties, some of which have been implicated in the violence. Recently, however, his reputation has enjoyed a resurgence as he has tried to build alliances with Sunni political groups ahead of next month's national elections.
His comments come as a severe blow to those hoping Iraq was moving towards normalization under the new government. In a speech on Wednesday, Bush is expected to hail the improved readiness of Iraqi troops, which he has identified as the key condition for withdrawing US forces.
But the proximity of the latest round of elections appears only to have intensified political murders and intimidations, including members of Allawi's own list, who have been killed and attacked by political rivals.
Allawi's scathing assessment of the collapse of human rights in Iraq under the country's first democratically elected government came amid an angry denunciation of the involvement of the Iraq government's own institutions in widespread disappearances, torture and assassinations.
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