AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Public Statement

AI Index: MDE 14/027/2009

Date: 19 August 2009

Iraq: Amnesty International appalled by today’s mass killing of civilians in Baghdad

Amnesty International condemns in the strongest terms the deliberate killing of at least 75 people, all or mostly civilians in the Iraqi capital earlier today, sixyears to the day after the headquartersof the UN in Baghdad was bombed killing 22 UN employees and others, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, then UN Special Envoy in Iraq.

Two massive truck bombs were explodedthis morning, one outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairsbuilding, close to the heavily-guarded Green Zone, and the other outside the Ministry of Finance in al-Waziriya district of Baghdad. In athird attack, a car bomb was exploded in a market in al-Baya’ district. At least 75 people are reported to have been killed in the three explosions, most or all of them civilians, and more than 400 other people, also mostly civilians, are reported to have been injured. As yet, it is unclear who carried outthese latest attacks.

As direct attacks on civilians these latest bomb attacks constitute war crimes. If , as it appears, theattacks are part of a widespread or systematic attack on the civilian population of Iraq in furtherance of aparticular organizationor armed group's policy, they alsoconstitute crimes against humanity. War crimes and crimes against humanity are among the most serious crimes under international law. These attacks must be stopped immediately and those responsible must be brought to justice.

Hundreds of people, including members of ethnic and religious minorities, have now been killed by armed groups and many more injured in the run-up to and following the 30 June deadline for the pullout of US troops from Iraq's cities and towns,as stipulated for by the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), a security agreement signed between Iraq and the US at the end of 2008 and which entered into force in January this year.

Public Document

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