At midnight on 1st August 1990, Iraqi forces began their advance towards Kuwait. By 2nd August 1990, Iraqi forces were in full control of Kuwait City. Under the control of Ali Hassan al-Majid, Member of the Regional Command and Sab'awi Ibrahim, head of the Intelligence Directorate in Kuwait (and later Aziz Salih al-Noman as Governor of Kuwait), the Iraqi security forces imposed a brutal security regime on Kuwait.

Around half a million Iraqi documents were captured by Coalition forces after the liberation of Kuwait and they serve to show the full extent of the repression. Among the documents can be found:

• orders to execute owners of houses bearing anti-Iraqi slogans.

• orders to kill on sight any civilian caught on the streets after curfew or anyone involved in any resistance activity.

• orders to use machine guns, grenade launchers and flame throwers against civilian demonstrators.¹

The documentation and eyewitness accounts arising from the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait suggest that the Iraqi regime committed violations of humanitarian law and that their actions constituted grave breaches of the Geneva Convention (IV) Relative to the Protection of Civilians in Time of War (1949) as defined in Article 147.

• The attack on Kuwait in August 1990 was a clear contravention of Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter and customary international law prohibiting wars of aggression.

• The Iraqis were guilty of the systematic use of torture both as a method of extracting information and as a punishment. Suspected members of the Kuwaiti Armed Forces and those suspected of resistance activity were particularly brutally treated. Individuals were subjected to beatings, electric shocks, burns, mock executions and sexual torture including rape (one source cites up to 1,000 reported cases of rape and many more may have gone unrecorded).

• Other methods of torture reported included cutting off ears and tongues, gouging of eyes and castration.

• Arbitrary extrajudicial executions were commonplace in Kuwait during the occupation and could result from even the least show of resistance or objection to the Iraqi occupation.

• Over 600 Kuwaiti nationals transferred to Iraq during the occupation have still not been accounted for.²

• The Iraqis systematically looted Kuwait and destroyed what they could not take with them. Captured documents contain orders from the highest level to strip Kuwait of medical supplies, educational supplies, cars and luxury goods and transfer them in to Iraq.

• Between the date of invasion and December 1991, thousands of foreign nationals were held hostage to dissuade their countries from joining the Coalition against Iraq. In the latter stages of their detention many were moved to industrial and military sites and used as human shields against attack.

• Coalition prisoners of war were subjected to torture and mistreatment in violation of the Geneva Convention (III) Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (12th August 1949).

¹ For more information, visit the Iraq Foundation or the Centre for Research & Studies on Kuwait.

² See Situation of human rights in Iraq Note by the Secretary-General, A/50/734, 8th November 1995.

References

Amnesty International
Iraq/Occupied Kuwait
Human Rights Violations Since 2nd August
December 1990
Reference: MDE 14/16/90

Secret Detention of Kuwaitis and Third Country nationals
September 1993
Reference: MDE 14/05/93

Report on the situation of Human Rights in Kuwait under Iraqi occupation, Walter Kälin, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights
UN Doc E/CN.4/1992/26

War Crimes Documentation Centre, International Affairs Division, Office of the Judge Advocate General Headquarters, Department of the Army
Report on Iraqi war crimes
8 January 1992
Reference S/25441