Written by Arkan Radeef / Translated by Shermeen Yousif
Repression by a certain entity is defined by the forceful persecution of a certain group or a group of people for political, religious, or ethnic reasons for the purpose of restricting and preventing the ability of this group or group from participating in political life or practicing certain religious rituals, thus reducing their status among the rest of the community. Usually, this entity pursues various methods of human rights violations, such as abuse, brutality, imprisonment, involuntary settlement, stripping citizens of their rights, purification, violent action, or terrorism, such as murder, execution, torture, enforced disappearance, sexual assault, and other punishments outside the law.
Since the start of the October Revolution in Iraq, legal repression has increased, with prisons crammed with journalists and activists awaiting a fair trial that will clear them of the suspicions and accusations reinforced by the terrorism law, which relied on the force of law enforcement at the time, and perhaps this is the easiest way for the Safavid militias to get away with it in case they did something wrong. Kidnapping or using a weapon Under the watchful eye of the corrupt Iraqi government, militias and religious and political parties continue to practice oppression and terrorism against Iraqis. But it went further than that, attacking the abducted families to achieve certain objectives, including political, business, and even personal goals and aspirations.
The families of the activists and the disappeared are in danger, and this fact has been obvious for a long time, and that all the families of the kidnapped and the disappeared are afraid to speak openly about the demand to reveal the fate of their youngsters or kids. If the families of the activists and the disappeared speak up, their voices will be fearful, fearing that the same thing will happen to the rest of the family. The kidnapping and killing of Ali Jaseb and his family in October 2019 by the Ansar Allah Al-Awfiya militia, led by the terrorist Haider Al-Gharawi, is the best example. His father (Jaseb Hattab) became agitated and began looking for his kid as well as contacting the Iraqi authorities, but no one answered his request. Al-Gharawi threatened and demanded silence from the father (Jaseb Hattab), but the father did not respond. Until his father was assassinated by the Ansar Allah Al-Awfiya militia on Wednesday, March 10, 2021. The Ansar Allah Al-Awfiya Militia was a splinter group of the Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq militia that controlled several government agencies and businesses in Maysan. Two members of the Ansar Allah Al-Awfiya Militia were elected to Maysan province’s parliament, and the militia was notorious for its illegal transactions and large profits from border trade with Iran. The threat of death was not the only means of suppressing these families’ voices; it also included cash demands in exchange for the prisoner’s release or guarantees from these militias that the prisoner would not be tortured or sexually assaulted within the prison. These financial demands could be in the tens of thousands of dollars. Another tactic used by these criminal armed militias in Iraq to terrorize the families of the kidnapped is to break into their homes, kidnap some members of their families, beat them, or threaten them with rape to intimidate these families and force them to remain silent and not demand the fate of their disappeared sons in militia prisons.
The Iraqi government’s unusual silence in the face of these cowardly actions is unusual; in the meantime, the government sets the world on fire for far less serious matters. The government’s failure to intervene in the majority of the killings, kidnappings, or threats calls for red flags and exclamation marks to its credibility?! The government has a legal obligation to uncover these militias, convict them, and punish them. Or, there are two options for the government: Either the government is aware of these assassins and is concealing their identities out of fear of them; as a result, it must surrender its seats and declare defeat in the face of these religious political forces and their militia. Or else the government will be complicit with them, collaborating in the destruction of Iraq and its people.
Iraq is currently experiencing lean years and a crisis unlike anything seen before in its history. Kidnapping, murder, treachery, arrest, ruin, destruction, and robbery have all become extremely common in Iraq. Baghdad, once the capital of science and the cradle of culture, has turned its alleys and streets into dens for murder, kidnapping, and destruction, and the trees that once adorned its streets have been replaced by corpses lying on the streets as a result of treachery and betrayal.