Iraq
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- Military.
- International Relations.
- Publicity.
- Information and Investigation.
- Social Services.
- Administration and Finance.
SCIRI has secret cells all over Iraq which are involved in gathering information, media work and military activities. SCIRI has also main offices in London (headed by Dr. Hamid Al Bayati), Damascus, Geneva and Vienna.
The head office of SCIRI is based in Iran among the largest Iraqi community outside Iraq temperarely estimated at one million Iraqis. SCIRI has main offices in different parts of the liberated areas of Iraqi Kurdistan.
SCIRI commands military forces called Badr Corps. This started as a brigade and developed into a division and then into a corps. The Badr Corps consist of thousands of former Iraqi officers and soldiers who defected from the Iraqi army, Iraqi refugees, and Iraqis who fled the country and join SCIRI.
SCIRI has good relations with all the neighboring countries around Iraq. Ayatollah Al Hakim has visited Kuwait several times and has been received by Amir of Kuwait, Crown Prince and many other officials. He has visited Saudi Arabia many times and has been received by King Fahd, Crown Prince Abdula and other high ranking officials. He has visited Syria and been received by President Hafuz Al Asad several times. He met also Sulaiman Demeriel the president of Turkey. He has met high officials in Iran several times such as Ayatollah Ali Khameneie, Shaikh Rafsanjani and president Khatami. On his resent visit to Lebanon president Ameel Lahoud received Ayatollah Al-Hakim who met also the prime minister and several Lebanese Ministers.
Ayatollah Al-Hakim has also met the previous UN General Secretary Javier Peres De Cullar. Ayatollah Al Hakim has received in Tehran most of the Ambassadors of the countries in the world.
Ayatollah Al Hakim has an historical and warm relation with the Kurdish Movements in Iraq since his father gave a religious decree (Fatwa) which forbade the Iraqi army from fighting against the Kurds in Iraq. A mutual agreement as been signed by SCIRI with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) headed by Jalal Talabani to work against Saddam's regime. A similar agreement was signed with the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) headed by Masood Barzani several years ago.
Ayatollah Al Hakim has strong relation with other ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq such as Turcomans, Assyrians, and all Christian groups. He participated in Christmas and Easter celebrations of the Iraqis Christians in Iran. His relations with the late religious leader of the Iraqi Assyrian Community Zaya Baboo was unique as they worked together to fight against the dictator of Iraq and the tyrannical regime of Bath Party. They traveled together to Geneva and met UN General Security.
SCIRI has participated in all Iraqi opposition conferences such as the Beirut conference in 1990 and Salahudin in north of Iraq in 1992. It was a part of all umbrella organization for Iraqi Opposition groups such as the Joint Action Committee and the Iraqi National Congress (INC).
Some Crimes of Saddam's Regime
The repressive violence of Saddam's regime is the norm and not something used by the authorities in exceptional circumstances as it is in many countries. The repression, imprisonment, torture, deportation, assassination, and execution are strategies followed by Saddam's regime in dealing with Iraqi people. The strategy of Saddam's regime in dealing with neighbouring countries are arrogance and aggression.
These strategies results from the fact that Saddam's regime is a dictatorship which lacks constitutional legitimacy and real popular base inside the country.
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Crimes of Saddam's satanic regime are countless and endless. However the following are few examples of these crimes:
- The killing of Sunni religious leaders such as Abdul Aziz Al Badri the Imam of Dragh district mosque in Baghdad in 1969, Al Shaikh Nadhum Al Asi from Ubaid tribe in Northern Iraq, Al Shiakh Al Shahrazori, Al Shaikh Umar Shaqlawa, Al Shiakh Rami Al Kirkukly, Al Shiakh Mohamad Shafeeq Al Badri, Abdul Ghani Shindala.
- The arrest of hundreds of Iraqi Islamic activists and the execution of five religious leaders in 1974.
- The arrest of thousand of religious people who rose up against the regime and the killing of hundreds of them in the popular uprising of 1977 in which Ayatollah Mohamad Baqir Al Hakim the leader of SCIRI was sentenced to life imprisonment.
- The arrest, torture and executions of tens of religious scholars and Islamic activists in such as Qasim Shubbar, Qasim Al Mubarqaa in 1979.
- The arrest, torture and execution of Ayatollah Mohamad Baqir Al Sadr and his sistre Amina Al Sadr (Bint Al Huda) in 1980.
- The war against Iran in 1980 in which hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed, and many doubles of that number were handicapped or reported missing.
- The arrest of 90 members of Al Hakim family and the execution of 16 members of that family in 1983 to put pressure on Ayatollah Mohamad Baqir Al Hakim to stop his struggle against Saddam's regime.
- Using chemical weapons in the North and the South the details of which are below.
- The occupation of Kuwait which resulted in killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and injuring many doubles of that number in addition to the destruction of Iraq.
- The assassination of many opposition figures outside Iraq such as Haj Sahal Al Salman in UAE in 1981, Sami Mahdi and Ni'ma Mohamad in Pakistan in 1987, Sayed Mahdi Al Hakim in Sudan in 1988, and Shaikh Talib Al Suhail in Lebanon in 1994.
- The execution of 21 Bath Party leaders in 1979 in Iraq , the assassination of Hardan Al Tikriti former defence Minister in Kuwait in 1973, and the former Prime- Minister Abdul Razzaq Al naef in London 1978.
Chemical Weapons
It is well documented that Saddam's regime has produced and used Chemical weapons against the Iraqi people and against neighbouring countries. The following are some examples of the occasions in which he used such weapons:
- It is world wide known that Saddam's regime dropped chemical bombs by air fighter on Halabja in Northern Iraq in 1988. The UN, other international organisations and Western Governments' reports confirmed that more than 5000 thousands civilians were killed in few hours. Eye witnesses accounts , photos and films show the horrifying facts of the most heinous crime in modern time.
- There are many cites in Northern Iraq in which Saddam used chemical weapons. These cites are known to the UN and other international organisations.
- Saddam's regime used chemical weapons against Iranian soldiers during Iraq Iran war. Many of them were sent to Europe to receive medical treatment and the whole world saw them on the TV.
- General Wafiq Al Samarae the former director of the Iraqi Intelligence Service admitted in his book (Eastern Gate Ruins) that Saddam's regime used light chemical weapons against Iraqi people in the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala to crush the popular uprising of March 1991 which followed the defeat of Saddam in invading Kuwait.
- After the crushing of the uprising, large number of people took sanctuary in the Marshes of Southern Iraq. In 1993 Saddam's regime used chemical weapons against the people of the Marshes in orders to crush the resistance forces which took the Marshes as bases to attack Saddam's regime
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Ayatollah Sayed Mohamad Baqir Al-Hakim
Ayatollah Sayed Mohamad Baqir Al-Hakim, was born in 1939, is the son of the late Grand Ayatollah Muhsin AI-Hakim (who was the spiritual leader for the Shia world in the period 1955-1970).
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Sayed Al-Hakim was a co-founder of the Islamic political movement in Iraq established in the late fifties, along with the late distinguished leader Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir Al-Sadr and other scholars. He maintained a close association with Ayatollah Al-Sadr up to the martyrdom of Ayatollah Al-Sadr in 1980. In 1972 Sayed Al-Hakim was arrested and tortured by the Bathist regime. He was released after a wide spread popular pressure on the regime. In 1977 he was re-arrested following the people's uprising in Feb. 1977 in Najaf, and immediately sentenced to life imprisonment by special court without any trial. He was released in July 1979 following huge public pressure on the regime.
Sayed Al-Hakim's association with Ayatollah Al-Sadr continued after his release in 1979 when Ayatollah Al-Sadr was put under house arrest. At this point Sayed Al-Hakim assumed the responsibility of conducting clandestine contact with Ayatollah Al-Sadr until April 1980 when Ayatollah Al-Sadr was murdered by Saddam's regime. Sayed Al- Hakim then decided to leave Iraq in 1980 shortly after the eruption of war between Iraq and Iran. He played a prominent role in the deliberations leading to the establishment of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (SCIRI) in November 1982.
Saddam's regime reacted violently to Sayed Al-Hakim's prominent political activity of SCIRI and arrested 125 members of his family in 1983. Subsequently 18 members of his family were executed.
Despite this ordeal and the assassination of his brother Sayed Mahdi Al-Hakim in Sudan Jan. 1988, Sayed Al-Hakim continued his political activities against Saddam's regime. In addition to his political activities, Sayed Al-Hakim is a leading member of several Islamic associations. He is also the author of many books on Islamic and political thoughts.
BADR CORPS
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The Ba'ath regime started its reign with a brutal confrontation with the religious leadership of Grand Ayatollah Sayed Muhsin Al Hakim who was put under house arrest. His son Sayed Mahdi Al Hakim was accused of being a traitor and fled the country and was assassinated later in Sudan in 1988.
In 1974 five religious leaders were executed. In 1977 there was a popular uprising when the regime prevented the people from visiting the Shrine of Imam Husain in the holy city of Karbala. Sayed Mohamad Baqir Al Hakim, the leader of SCIRI and the son of Grand Ayatollah Sayed Muhsin Al Hakim was arrested, tortured and sentenced to life imprisonment without a trial.
In 1980 Ayatollah Mohamad Baqir Al Sadr who became the religious leader after the death of Sayed Muhsin Al Hakim was executed with his sister Amina Al Sadr.
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The strategy of Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir Al Hakim the leader of SCIRI was as follows:
- To establish popular secret resistance cells inside Iraq.
- To mobilise Iraqis outside Iraq and to train them on using arms.
- To establish an armed force to fight Saddam's regime.
Ayatollah Al Hakim started this force with a brigade called Badr Brigade which developed in to a division and then into a corps. It consists of thousands of fighters recommitted from Iraqi refugees in Iran, Iraqi migrants and Iraqi military officers as well as soldiers from Iraqi army who defected during Iran- Iraq war. A new wave of fighters arrived in Iran after the popular uprising of March 1991 which was crushed by Saddam's regime.
The Badr corps consist of Infantry, Armoured, Artillery, Anti aircraft and commandos units. The training courses are supervised by Iraqi military officers and commanders who defected from Iraqi army.
The Badr forces strategy is as follows:
- To build military bases in some safe areas such as the Marshes in southern Iraq and Kurdistan in Northern Iraq.
- To establish secret resistance cells all over Iraq.
- To keep mobilising and training camps outside Iraq in the neighbouring countries which allow such activities.
During the popular uprising of March 1991 the secret cells and elements which was connected to Badr corps took part actively in launching and spreading the uprising from the south to other parts of Iraq.
Offices of SCIRI
Since its establishment in 1982 the main office of the Supreme Council is in Tehran for the following reasons:
- Iran welcomed Ayatollah Al Hakim the leader of SCIRI and thousands of Iraqi immigrants who fled Iraq after Saddam took power in Iraq in 1979. While most of the countries in the region supported Saddam, especially during the Iraq Iran War.
- The largest Iraqi community outside Iraq is in Iran which allow SCIRI to mobilise them, train them and send them to fight Saddam's regime inside Iraq.
- The chance for the Iraqi opposition to move against Saddam's regime from Iran especially during the war which Saddam's regime launched against Iran.
- The long borders between Iraq and Iran which allow the resistance fighters to cross to and from Iraq to carry on their activities.
- The Marshes in southern Iraq covers areas in southern Iran making resistance easier along the borders of the two countries.
- Some of the tribes of southern Iraq and the Marshes live over the borders between Iraq and Iran and that enables them to fight Saddam's regime and to have sanctuary across the borders.
In addition to the main offices in Tehran, SCIRI has offices in the following places:
- The liberated areas of Kurdistan Northern Iraq.
- London which covers other European countries and USA.
- Syria which covers Lebanon also.
- Vienna which covers Berlin also.
- A representative in the international organization in Geneva.
There are also many active accredited agents for SCIRI in Canada, France, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Australia and other countries.
London Office
SCIRI's office in London is responsible for many activities such as:
- Political activities: The representative of SCIRI in UK participates in political meetings, seminars, conferences regarding Iraq and Iraq case. He took part in delegation of SCIRI and INC (Iraqi National Congress) to Arab, Islamic, and European Countries as well as the USA. In addition to delegation to the International Organization such as the United Nations.
- Diplomatic Activities: The representative of SCIRI in UK meets with British officials in the Foreign Office and diplomats from European Countries.
- Media Activities: SCIRI's office issued Arabic and English press releases as well as Arabic and English weekly newsletters. The SCIRI representative takes part in many Radio and TV programs. He meets journalists from all over the world.
- Social Activities: SCIRI office helps Iraqi refugees in UK and other European countries by supporting letters to their asylum cases. It provides asylum seekers in Jordan, Turkey and other neighbouring countries with such letters. It provides asylum seekers in UK with legal advice and some other needs.