Under the Saddam Hussein regime, both the Kurds of northern Iraq, and the Shiites (Shia), Iraq's largest religious group, faced constant persecution. The following excerpt from a report by the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office describes some of the human rights abuses that these groups have experienced.

The Kurds

Under Saddam's rule, Iraq's Kurdish communities have experienced terrible suffering.

Documents captured by the Kurds during the Gulf War and handed over to the non-governmental organisation Human Rights Watch provided much information about Saddam's persecution of the Kurds. They detail the arrest and execution in 1983 of 8,000 Kurdish males aged 13 and upwards.

Amnesty International in 1985 drew attention to reports of hundreds more dead and missing, including the disappearance of 300 Kurdish children arrested in Sulaimaniya, of whom some were tortured and three died in custody.

In 1988, Iraqi government forces systematically razed Kurdish villages...