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Video
material showing images of torture and death still
on sale in most of Iraq, as Kurdistan bans "snuff"
CDs.
Dilman Jamal, 12, laughs as he says, "My father
wouldn't let us watch those CDs, but when he was out
I searched the house to find them and I watched
them."
Neither cartoons nor feature films, the video CDs
that Jamal referred to showcase real images of
death. Compilations of videoed scenes of torture,
shootings, beheadings and bombings, they are on sale
in marketplaces in Iraq.
"There are around 15 different CDs that show
killings and torture," said Farhad Kareem, who runs
a CD store.
The first local productions in the genre came out
after former dictator Saddam Hussein was ousted, and
official videos recording executions and torture
sessions came to light.
The insurgency has provided new material, including
beheadings of western hostages, largely collected
from the internet.
The compilations have found a ready market and
thousands of copies have been sold.
They continue to sell in the south of Iraq, although
they have now been banned in the Kurdish autonomous
region in the north. Police in Kurdistan are trying
to enforce the ban, closing CD shops and arresting
their owners.
"Before it was banned, I sold 200 to 300 copies,"
said CD vendor Said Jamal Majeed.
Sarkawt Hassan, head of the Sulaimaniyah's interior
ministry security department, said the CDs can lead
to copycat crimes.
"It's inappropriate to allow these CDs because it
affects people's emotions and feelings," he said.
"Criminals make use of these CDs because they
indirectly threaten people and create a culture of
fear. The phenomenon is like an advertisement for
criminals: it helps spread violence and it leads
people to imitate the acts of violence shown in the
CDs. It encourages crime."
A title called "The Lion" shows footage of Uday
Hussein, Saddam's eldest son, feeding what appears
to be the bodies of his victims to his pet lions and
a tiger.
Others contain bloody images of fighting at Baghdad
airport in 2003, the assault by Coalition forces on
Fallujah, the torture and execution of Iraqi army
soldiers, and a young man being blown up by a bomb.
The footage contains such barbaric scenes that some
of the retailers can't bring themselves to view
them. "I have never been able to watch them but my
cousin told me what was in one. It showed three
people from the previous regime playing cards on the
back of a naked woman. The one who won the game won
the woman as well," said shop owner Shirwan Kareem,
28.
Vendors say that prior to the ban, customers in the
northern city of Sulaimaniyah covered the spectrum
of society - young and old, men and women
- with the largest audience made up of young people,
including children.
Parzheen Kamal, 54, a housewife, said her husband
bought a CD and the family sat down to a screening.
"We all watched it. We tried to stop our two little
children watching it but they were keen to see it.
So sometimes I asked them to stop watching but they
didn't listen to me."
Twana Wirya, a social researcher at the Kaziway Sara
Cultural Centre in Sulaimaniyah, said that this type
image can have a serious impact on the psychological
well-being of children, "They create a lot of fear
among them.
The phenomenon causes depression and leads to
violence."
The exposure to violence has led to high levels of
tolerance among the young. "I don't feel unhappy
about the killings and the blood," said 12-year old
Jamal.
"Watch The Lion, that's the best one."
Rebaz Mahmood is an IWPR trainee journalist in
Sulaimaniyah.
www.iwpr.net
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