'Music and lyrics' — dancing to his own tune

Abstract

‘But can it be true?’, Max asked out loud to himself. It was September 1991 and we had just received at the Palais des Nations in Geneva the first personal testimony of an alleged victim of serious human rights violations committed by the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein. Dr Hussein Shahristani, Iraq’s leading nuclear physicist (and now long-serving Minister of Oil — the only person in the country broadly trusted for that job), had shown us his hand and explained Sotto voce how an automatic drill had been used to penetrate it in an effort by Saddam’s henchmen to persuade Dr Shahristani to build a nuclear bomb. For his refusal he endured ten years of solitary confinement and various tortures in the infamous Abu Ghraib Prison. Max heard the calmly conveyed words from the dignified gentleman before him, but he hesitated to believe that such torture over such a length of time could be so suffered or matter-of-factly recounted. For all his careful intellect, Max was disposed to follow more his feelings about such testimony from this witness whom he had never previously met nor heard of. With caution, we compiled a broad cross-section of allegations of human rights violations — of all kinds affecting anyone under Iraqi control or jurisdiction — and in autumn 1991 submitted them to the Government of Iraq for its comment. Many allegations had been corroborated by different forms of evidence — documentary and testimonial. Some had been captured on film, many were inescapably true insofar as they were expressed in official decrees published in the Iraqi Official Gazette ... and many were repeated. It appeared quite evident that Saddam’s regime was responsible for gross, widespread and systematic violations of human rights. Still, Max took care that nothing was submitted for which we had doubt about its veracity; better to err on the side of caution. Somewhat remarkably, the Government of Iraq responded by denying any and all allegations – accusing us of submitting lies and fabrications. Later, they admitted facts, but invoked various spurious excuses, including repeatedly blaming ‘the sanctions’.