The World - News from March 13, 1986

Amnesty International accused Iraq of gross human rights violations including arbitrary arrests of scores of children, three of whom were said to have died from torture, and summary executions. A representative of the London-based human rights group told the U.N. Human Rights Commission that about 300 children were arrested last autumn in the town of Sulaymaniyah, in Iraq’s Kurdish region. Amnesty said the children, ages 10 to 14, were apparently arrested in retaliation for the political activities of their relatives, said to be either army deserters or members of the armed Kurdish opposition.