Sunnis call for international probe into Iraq torture allegations News
Sunnis call for international probe into Iraq torture allegations

[JURIST] The Iraqi Islamic Party [official website; GlobalSecurity profile], one of Iraq's largest Sunni parties, on Wednesday demanded an international investigation into allegations that security forces illegally detained and tortured suspected insurgents [JURIST report] at secret jails in Baghdad. Omar Heikal said that the majority Shiites were trying to suppress minority Sunnis before the December 15 parliamentary elections and called for the "United Nations, the Arab League and humanitarian bodies to denounce these clear human rights violations, and we demand a fair, international probe so that all those who are involved in such practices will get their just punishment." The demands come a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] confirmed that more than 173 prisoners were found malnourished and possibly tortured by government security forces and announced that the Iraqi government will investigate the alleged abuse. AP has more.

1:17 PM ET – Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture [official website], also called Wednesday for an independent investigation into torture allegations at US and Iraqi detention centers. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.