CAIRO: The tenth and latest report on human rights violations issued by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (Unami) has criticized aspects of the Baghdad Security Plan implemented to curb attacks in the Iraqi capital city. The main concern was in the handling of suspects arrested under the plan. The report states that arrests are authorized "without warrants and the interrogation of suspects without placing a time limit on how long they could be held in pre-trial detention. According to the report, the new plan "contained no explicit measures guaranteeing minimum due process rights. Hundreds have been held for prolonged periods without referral to an investigative judge or charges brought against them. Unami remained concerned "at the apparent lack of judicial guarantees in the handling of suspects arrested in the context of the Baghdad Security Plan. Forty thousand Iraqi and US troops took to the streets in June of last year as part of a plan to make Baghdad less susceptible to attacks. Since then the plan has met with mixed success and the frequency of attacks and the number of casualties have both remained high. Another aspect mentioned in the report was the increasing acts of violence against minorities in the country. Referring to it as a "serious trend the report describes the "growing intolerance towards minorities, whose representatives continued to lodge complaints about discrimination, intimidation and individual targeting on religious and political grounds. Additionally, there is also an attempt to stifle the press, with the continuation of attacks against journalists and media outlets across the country. The number of attacks on civilians by armed militias was also a cause for concern for Unami. However a worrying development is that Unami "continued to receive reports of possible collusion between armed militia and Iraqi Special Forces in raids and security operations, as well as reports of the failure of these forces to intervene to prevent kidnapping and murder and other crimes. Unlike previous reports which contained statistics on the killings in Iraq culled from the Iraqi government, for the present report Unami was prevented from accessing Ministry of Health mortality records. Despite that, the report still mentioned that sectarian violence continued to take lives, including women and children, in Sunni and Shia areas. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated at the launch of the International Compact with Iraq in Sharm El Sheikh yesterday that "There is no doubt that more must be done to bring a halt to the ongoing violence in Iraq, the brunt of which is being borne by innocent civilians. Ki-moon added: "Iraq is at a critical juncture. Political solutions are essential to building the foundations for a peaceful and prosperous country. Unami releases their rights reports on a quarterly basis. The latest report covered the time period up until March of this year.
