HC Deb 19 April 2004 vol 420 cc77-8W
Mr. Drew

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of levels of(a) discrimination against, (b) rape of and (c) torture of Mandaeans in Iraq. [164028]

Mr. Rammell

A small community of around 500 Mandaeans live in Basra, in the UK area of responsibility. They are represented by Sheikh Raad

UK
(£)
Date Conference Location Travel Costs Food and Drink Accommodation Miscellaneous
4 March, 2003 Enlargement seminal for parliamentarians Locarno suite, FCO 0 0 0 0
30 April, 2003 Seminar with parliamentarians on the future of the Arab world Lancaster House 0 0 0 0
17 July, 2003 Seminar on the future of Europe Locarno suite, FCO 0 0 0 0
12 July, 2003 Progressive governance conference Hilton, Metropole hotel, London 0 0 0 0
25 November, 2003 Address at the IPI'R conference Thistle hotel, Victoria 0 0 0 0

Gubashi, a Mandaean member of the Interim Council. The CPA office in Basra has not received evidence of discrimination or ill-treatment against them. If any information could be provided we would be willing to investigate.

Discrimination against any Iraqi citizen is forbidden by Article 12 of the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), which was agreed by the Iraqi Governing Council on 8 March. A copy of the TAL has been placed in the Library of the House. The Coalition is working hard with the Iraqis to strengthen the Iraqi security and judiciary sectors, in order to provide security to all Iraqi citizens and safeguard the rights laid out in the TAL.

Mr. Watson

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what evidence he has collated on the use by the former regime of Saddam Hussein of coercion to force the medical profession to conduct amputations as a form of punishment. [165254]

Mr. Rammell

The practice of the former regime of forcing medical professionals to perform punitive amputations has been well-documented by a number of independent sources including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iraq and by the British Medical Journal. A recent survey of medical professionals carried out in Iraq by Physicians for Human Rights has confirmed the prevalence of such coercion. UK and other Coalition nationals working for the Coalition Provisional Authority Office of Human Rights and Transitional Justice are collecting evidence for possible criminal prosecutions of those who ordered the amputations.