Iraq: Five years of carnage and despair

Amnesty International

Five years after US-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq remains one of the most dangerous countries in the world for human rights, Amnesty International said today.

In a new report, Carnage and Despair, the organisation says attacks and sectarian killings by armed groups, torture and ill-treatment by Iraqi government forces and the continuing detention of thousands of suspects by US and Iraqi forces have had a devastating impact, causing more than four million Iraqis to be displaced from their homes. Many of the detainees are held without charge or trial, some for several years.

Millions of dollars have been spent on security but today two out of three Iraqis still have no access to safe drinking water and almost one in three of the population – some eight million people – need emergency aid to survive.

"Saddam Hussein's administration was a byword for human rights abuse," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's director for the Middle East and North Africa, "but its replacement has brought no respite at all for the Iraqi people". MORE