More than 20 years have passed since the fall of the Baath regime, and more than 67,000 Iraqis are still awaiting the lifting of restrictions and compensation for the effects of severe penalties imposed by a “red card,” which deprived them of their civil rights and classified them as perpetrators of a “crime against honor.”
Ali Al-Shafi’i, the media spokesman for those with red cards, explains to Al-Hurra the reasons for granting this “ill-fated” card, as he describes it, to soldiers discharged from service starting from the year 1994 until the year 2000.
The previous regime, he says, “practiced unjust policies during the 1990s by attacking neighboring countries or Iraqis at home, and soldiers were required to participate in those senseless wars and carry out military orders without discussion.”
As a result: “Thousands of soldiers refused to join and implement these policies and turned into fugitives and persecuted, which is a type of objection to the policies of the previous regime.”
These soldiers, as Al-Shafi’i points out, “the regime considered them traitors, and issued many unjust decisions against them.”
Among those decisions: “cutting off the auricle, branding on the forehead, and execution. These are punishments that the regime was forced to stop at the time after the United Nations objected. The government invented an innovative punishment that combats a person psychologically, and causes him serious social humiliation, as he is accused of a crime against honor.”
Crimes against honor were not mentioned in a special paragraph within Iraqi legislation, but rather included in paragraphs including the crimes of theft, embezzlement, forgery, breach of trust, fraud, bribery, and indecent assault.
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Double service and civil penalties
After refusing to obey military orders in the early 1990s, Abu Hussein decided to escape from the army and go into hiding. Once the situation stabilized, he surrendered himself to the authorities and was sentenced to prison.
After his release from prison, he responded to the decision to serve double duty as his next punishment, then he served his escape period doubled twice, and when he was released, he said to Al-Hurra: “I was surprised to be released according to the red card, despite the imprisonment and long service. The most difficult punishment was being considered accused of a crime against honor.”
Abu Hussein explains the psychological suffering he was subjected to during that period of his life to Al-Hurra: “I was unable to work in the private sector, and the ration card was canceled from my family at a time when the entire community was suffering from destitution and poverty, due to the economic blockade imposed on us, after… Invasion of Kuwait.
That particular decision (issuing the red card) was: “A massive social insult. I was required to bear the bad treatment from the party squad, and at the checkpoints. Our lives as civilians were over, and even marriage contracts were forbidden, so most of us got married late, and some got married outside the court according to a legal contract.” As a result, “we either have children without official IDs, or some were forced to register them in the names of first-degree relatives.”
As Ali Al-Shafi’i says, the red card “meant one thing everywhere: that we were wanted by the government.” All of these measures were accompanied by “the cutting off of our livelihood, so we lived in poverty and deprivation for years. We could not work in state departments, and it was difficult to get work in the private sector, not to mention that we were not allowed to own a car or a house.”
Injustice is evenly distributed
The number of red card holders, according to the files of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, exceeds 67 thousand Iraqis, as Al-Shafi’i points out: “It does not include only the people of the south, as many expect, but we have red card holders even from Tikrit itself (the birthplace of the former regime Saddam Hussein).”
There are also “about 8,000 Iraqis of Kurdish nationalism, in addition to the various Iraqi minorities of Christians, Shabaks, Yazidis, and Kaka’is, and no Iraqi component from Zakho to Al-Faw was spared the red card.”
Sherzad Abu Mustafa, an Iraqi Kurd born in the capital, Baghdad, whose origins go back to the Iraqi city of Dohuk in the Kurdistan region, agrees with what Ali Al-Shafi’i said.
As Sherzad Abu Mustafa told Al-Hurra, he was forced to leave military service during the period of carrying out the Anfal operations, and again in the early 1990s: “I was required to beat my people and carry out extermination decisions against them, and this is unimaginable.”
Sherzad’s decision to leave the service during that stage, saying: “It cost me a lot morally and psychologically, and as soon as the situation stabilized, I surrendered myself to the authorities. I was sentenced to imprisonment, and then I served three times as long as I served, that is, nine full years of my life.”
At that time: “I was supposed to have my ears cut off or be branded between the eyebrows with the letter J (coward) as a punishment for escaping conscription, but at that time the United Nations rejected the sanctions imposed by the regime, so I was punished with a red card, the consequences of which we are still suffering to this day.”
The same applies to Shaker al-Jubouri, a resident of Hawija in Kirkuk Governorate, who was sentenced to death by firing squad: “The sentence was commuted after six months with double service, and I was discharged with a red card. Anyone was allowed to insult and humiliate me without being able to file a complaint, because I was… I am considered a second-class citizen.”
Muhammad Al-Shammari, who belonged to the Republican Guard and is from Babil Governorate, spoke to Al-Hurra about the great psychological torment that he was suffering from, not only him, but also everyone who refused conscription at that time: “We did not live in our homes, and we were being pursued. “We will be executed by firing squad anytime we are arrested.”
The regime, as it points out, “later changed the punishment and turned it into humiliating punishments such as cutting off the ear or marking the forehead.” As for the holder of the red card, “he was suspicious and deprived of his civil rights and his family.”
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Living dead
All of the red card holders who met the “Al Hurra” website share the broad outlines of suffering, with differences in geographical location. Ahmed Al-Waeli was dismissed from his job when he was a judicial assistant in 1996, and despite his attempts after the fall of the regime to return to the job, he was surprised: “They are working with the same decisions of the previous regime, and my return was refused, because the card recorded a criminal record for its holder, and all my academic efforts and my future were lost.”
Ibrahim Muhammad says that the red card: “contains within it stories that turn a young man gray, and punishments against humanity, such as torture and imprisonment.” He believes that what happened to them “was devastating to us as human beings.” Although they have not obtained their rights yet, “we will not compromise no matter how much time passes.”
While Haitham Hussein, a resident of Nasiriyah, summarizes the stories of red card holders by describing them as: “the living dead.”
After the fall of the general regime in 2003, as Ali Al-Shafi’i says: “The civil penalties fell. However, until this moment the Ministry of Defense considers us fugitives and punished and is following the decisions of the Baath.”
No compensation
Despite the issuance of compensation decisions for those affected by the previous regime in accordance with Law No. 5 of 2009: “However, those with red cards were not included in compensation or salary, and they were not even able to obtain retirement in exchange for long service in the army or add that period to civil service for retirement purposes.” Al-Shafi’i says.
The matter relates to “there being a link between the red card and escaping from military service, but the truth is that we returned, were punished with imprisonment and doubled the conscription period, and then we were discharged. This means that we were not cowards, nor deserters, but it was our way of objecting to the decisions of the regime at the time, and this is what “We were punished for it.”
He points out that those with red cards: “We are not affiliated with a party or bloc, and we are not from a specific component, but our issue relates to all components, and for this reason our demands did not find an echo in Parliament. We were once again deprived of building our future during the rule of the previous regime, and we were deprived of compensation for the damage after The year 2003.”
Abu Hussein believed that he would enter a new phase after the fall of the regime: “The criminal registration in the Ministry of the Interior was lifted from us. However, the military registration remained in place and we were not entitled to compensation because we were under a military registration and not a political one. We are also not entitled to transfer service due to the continued presence of the red card.” And its instructions are in the Ministry of Defense until now.”
The issue of those with red cards reached Parliament in 2021 through a female representative, and a first reading was held to amend the law on compensation for those affected who lost part of their bodies as a result of the practices of the former regime, No. (5) of 2009.
Aside from this inclusion, the file did not move in Parliament, and Muhammad Al-Shammari says that the matter may be related to “political bargaining related to the approval of laws in exchange for other laws, as the file of those with red cards is not related to a specific party or component to be stronger within the corridors of the House of Representatives.”
Member of the House of Representatives, Zozan Koger, supports the issue of red card holders in Parliament. She told Al-Hurra that this segment “was subjected to military and civil sanctions that violated their rights, and they were not treated fairly by successive governments after 2003.”
She added that there is a trend during the current parliamentary session to amend the Victims’ Compensation Law to include them, “as the first reading of the third amendment to the Victims’ Law has taken place, and it is currently being studied within the relevant committees, such as Legal, Finance, Defense and Security, to include them in compensation or retirement salaries.”
As for the delay that occurred, it is due to “the presence of a financial disadvantage, which means adding allocations within the budget. When the legal materials are completed by the relevant committees, it will be pushed to the second reading, and we will stand with it to do justice to this segment that was subjected to discriminatory treatment and lost many of its rights during the rule of the previous regime.” “.
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