SAVAGE JUSTICE

Viewers tuning in to Baghdad TV last September got a ghastly glimpse of the Iraqi government in action. First came a close-up of a severed human hand, then one of a man clutching the bloody stump of his forearm, a black cross branded on his forehead. The newscaster said the man had been punished for stealing a television set.

The graphic depiction of Iraq's use of mutilation to punish everyone from petty thief to political opponent will be included in a U.S. State Department report on human-rights abuses to be released in February. According to U.N. and U.S. State Department sources, hundreds and perhaps thousands of Iraqis have had hands, feet or ears amputated, without anesthetic.

Faced with the hardships brought on by the four-year-old U.N. sanctions against their country, Iraqis have increasingly turned to crime, according to Iraqi sources. Last June, President Saddam Hussein's government responded with a series of decrees designed to deter crime; Iraqi officials justify the mutilations as warranted under Shari`a, or Islamic law.

In any event, the amputations are reportedly being ordered by members of the ruling Baath Party rather than by religious courts, as called for in the Koran. Max Van Der Stoel, a Dutch human-rights monitor for the U.N. in Iraq, who has documented the abuses, says Hussein's real intent is to stifle popular opposition.

According to reports by other observers, Iraqis who have had parts of their ears removed are showing up regularly at camps along the border with Iran. Many Iraqi doctors have also reportedly fled the country to avoid having to perform such operations. Said a State Department official last week: ``As a device to intimidate potential political opposition and reduce crime, the mutilations may be tragically effective.''