publications

II. Methodology

This report focuses on the rights to due process and conditions of detention of persons held in the custody of the Kurdish security forces (Asayish) responsible for the arrest, detention and interrogation of security suspects and certain criminal suspects.2 It is based on research carried out in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq between April and October 2006, involving three field visits. Human Rights Watch obtained written authorization from the directors of the KDP and PUK Asayish forces to conduct unannounced visits to detention facilities under their jurisdiction, including repeat visits. For the most part, the organization conducted the interviews in private, without the presence of detaining officials (in some facilities, detaining officials made available to Human Rights Watch the use of a room or office where the organization conducted the interviews in privacy; in other places, Human Rights Watch conducted the interviews one-on-one but in the courtyard of the facility). Some detainees preferred being interviewed in their cells, which typically were large communal cells, housing some 50 or 60 detainees and providing a degree of anonymity, away from the eyes of detaining officials. In all facilities the detaining authorities did not permit Human Rights Watch to interview detainees being held in solitary confinement or still undergoing interrogation.3

Human Rights Watch visited 10 detention facilities operated by Kurdish security forces. Four of them were under KDP authority: Asayish Gishti (General Security) and Asayish Arbil (Arbil Security), both located in the city of Arbil; Asayish Shaqlawa, located in Arbil governorate; and Asayish `Aqra, located in Duhok governorate. Six were under PUK authority: Asayish Gishti (General Security) and Asayish Sulaimaniya (Sulaimaniya Security), both located in the city of Sulaimaniya; al-Salam Garrison, located west of Sulaimaniya city; Asayish Hawler, located in the town of Koisinjaq; Asayish Sharazur, located near the town of Halabja; and Asayish Chamchamal, located in Sulaimaniya governorate.

In total, Human Rights Watch interviewed 158 detainees, 112 of whom were in KDP custody and 46 in PUK custody. The focus was on adult male detainees held in pretrial detention, although Human Rights Watch found several convicted prisoners held with untried detainees at the same facility.

No detainees are named in this report, nor other details published that would enable detaining officials to identify them. Some of those interviewed declined to give their names or other personal details, and many expressed fears that they would be subjected to punishment for agreeing to talk to Human Rights Watch. We have changed the names of all the detainees to conceal their true identities, and we have employed common Arabic first names rather than refer to them generically as “a detainee.” During repeat visits to two facilities, detainees reported that they had suffered no reprisals for talking with Human Rights Watch, but said that detaining officials had noted their names.

Outside of the prisons, Human Rights Watch also interviewed six former detainees held in detention without trial at various times between 2000 and 2006. Three had been in KDP custody and three in PUK custody. Human Rights Watch also conducted these interviews on condition of anonymity.

The detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch fell into two categories based on where they were taken into custody. The first and largest category comprised persons arrested by Kurdish security forces within the Kurdistan region—the governorates of Arbil, Duhok, and Sulaimaniya. Most were Iraqi Kurds, with a small number of Iraqi Arabs and Turcomans.4 There were also some foreign nationals, including from Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Jordan, and the Comoros Islands.The second category comprised persons arrested in other governorates in Iraq. According to Kurdish officials, the arresting authority in these cases was the Iraqi armed forces or police, in some cases jointly with US military forces. Following preliminary investigation, the arresting authorities then transferred the detainees to the custody of the Kurdistan authorities, apparently for “safe keeping.” They included some Iraqi Kurds, but most were Iraqi Arabs from Mosul and Kirkuk. According to Kurdish officials, some were also arrested further away in the governorates of Salahuddin, Anbar, and Diyala, as well as Baghdad.

Human Rights Watch did not have the opportunity to visit any of the women’s prisons in Arbil, Duhok, and Sulaimaniya governorates, where female detainees suspected of security-related offenses may have been held.5 Nor did we visit any of the juvenile detention facilities, though we did interview two detainees at an adult facility in Sulaimaniya who stated that they were under age 18.

The majority of the detainees on whom this report focuses were terror suspects, apparently arrested for their alleged affiliation with armed groups that have claimed responsibility for attacks on civilians. In some cases the Kurdish authorities accused detainees of involvement in specific incidents, such as attacks on government officials or civilians. A smaller number of cases included persons whom Kurdish officials had arrested on suspicion of involvement in serious felonies, including murder and drug-trafficking.

Most detainees complained that Asayish agents subjected them to torture or other ill-treatment at various stages of their detention, particularly during the initial days or weeks following arrest when undergoing interrogation. The nature of the reported abuse was highly consistent at most detention facilities, and also with information regarding torture and ill-treatment of detainees in Asayish custody gathered by Human Rights Watch in the past. For this report, we did not independently verify detainees’ complaints; in most cases, any injuries sustained were alleged to have taken place several months or years earlier.

Human Rights Watch raised its concerns with regard to the legal status and treatment of detainees held in Asayish custody with a range of executive and legislative officials from both the KDP and the PUK administrations, including:6 President of the Kurdistan Region Mas`ud Barzani; KDP Minister of Interior Karim Sinjari; Minister of Justice Faruq Jamil; KDP Minister of Justice Azad al-Mullah; Minister of Human Rights Dr. Yusif `Aziz and personnel of the KDP Ministry of Human Rights; Deputy Speaker of the Kurdistan National Assembly Kamal Kirkuki and members of the parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee; and President of the unified Kurdistan Court of Cassation Salah al-Ya`qubi. With regard to Asayish officials, Human Rights Watch held meetings on a number of occasions with the general director of the KDP’s Asayish Gishti, Ismat Argushi, and with the general director of the PUK’s Asayish Gishti, Saifuddin `Ali. Additionally, Human Rights Watch met with Abdullah `Ali, director of the KDP’s Asayish Arbil, and, from the PUK, Col. Hassan Nuri, former head of the Political Unit of Asayish Sulaimaniya (now head of Sulaimaniya security),  and Col. Nasser `Aziz Mawlud, head of the Political Unit of Asayish Gishti. During visits to the detention facilities, Human Rights Watch held separate meetings with the facilities’ directors. Human Rights Watch also sought to discuss its concerns with the two investigative judges with responsibility for reviewing cases referred by the Asayish. The organization met with Judge Sirwan Ahmad Salih with regard to PUK-held detainees. On the KDP side, Judge Omar Bajalan declined to meet with Human Rights Watch, and the organization met instead with Col. Khalid Rojbayani, head of the Legal Affairs Unit of Asayish Gishti. Of the smaller political parties, Human Rights Watch met with Shaikh `Ali Bapir, emir of the Islamic Group in Iraqi Kurdistan, and several party officials.7

With regard to detainees who alleged that US and Iraqi military forces jointly arrested them outside the Kurdistan region and then transferred them to Asayish custody, Human Rights Watch also discussed its concerns in Baghdad with Maj. Gen. John D. Gardner, Commanding General of Multi-National Force Detainee Operations.

Human Rights Watch sent a condensed version of this report to President Barzani’s office asking for comments or a response to be incorporated into our final report. To date, President Barzani’s office has not responded.




2 Both KDP and PUK officials also gave Human Rights Watch authorization to visit prisons and detention facilities operated by their respective interior ministries’ police forces. As this was not the focus of its research, the organization did not conduct such visits at this time.

3 In KDP facilities, detaining officials provided Human Rights Watch with lists of names of detainees being held there on the days of the visits, excluding those undergoing interrogation. During the second field visits, in August 2006, KDP officials also provided the names of detainees undergoing interrogation whom Human Rights Watch could not interview. The organization was not in a position to assess the accuracy of these lists. In PUK facilities, detaining officials declined to provide lists of names of detainees.

4 Several of the Iraqi Kurdish detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch held dual nationality: their other countries of nationality included the United States, Sweden, and Australia.

5 During a visit to the main Asayish facility in Sulaimaniya in May 2006, Human Rights Watch found six women being held in a separate section together with two of their children. Most had been transferred there from the women’s prison for a short period, and were suspected of various criminal offenses including murder, forgery, and illegal entry into the country. Human Rights Watch interviewed them, but their cases do not feature in this report.

6 Human Rights Watch met with some of these officials before the unification of the PUK and KDP administrations in May 2006; it met with others after the Kurdistan Regional Government was announced, in their new capacities as ministers of state in the unified Council of Ministers.

7 At the time, some 30 members of the Islamic Group in Iraqi Kurdistan were in the custody of the KDP’s Asayish, and several others in the custody of the PUK’s Asayish. By May, following a deal brokered with the Islamic Group, the KDP released most of the Islamic Group members it was holding. The Islamic Group is currently represented in the Kurdistan Regional Government, having been allocated the environment ministry.