|
The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
|
December 3rd,
2004 - Fallujah Refugees Tell of Life and Death in the Kill Zone |
|
Fallujah Refugees Tell of
Life and Death in the Kill Zone By Dahr Jamail The New Standard December 3, 2004 Baghdad - Men now seeking
refuge in the Baghdad area are telling horrific stories of indiscriminate
killings by US forces during the peak of fighting last month in the largely
annihilated city of Fallujah. In an interview with The
NewStandard, Burhan Fasa’a, an Iraqi journalist who works for the popular
Lebanese satellite TV station, LBC, said he witnessed US crimes up close.
Burhan Fasa’a, who was in Fallujah for nine days during the most intense
combat, said Americans grew easily frustrated with Iraqis who could not speak
English. "Americans did not have
interpreters with them," Fasa’a said, "so they entered houses and
killed people because they didn’t speak English. They entered the house where
I was with 26 people, and [they] shot people because [the people] didn’t obey
[the soldiers’] orders, even just because the people couldn’t understand a
word of English." A man named Khalil, who
asked The NewStandard not to use his last name for fear of reprisals, said he
had witnessed the shooting of civilians who were waving white flags while
they tried to escape the city. Fasa’a further speculated, "Soldiers
thought the people were rejecting their orders, so they shot them. But the
people just couldn’t understand them." Fasa’a says American troops
detained him. They interrogated him specifically about working for the Arab
media, he said, and held him for three days. Fasa’a and other prisoners slept
on the ground with no blankets. He said prisoners were made to go to the bathroom
in handcuffs, using one toilet in the middle of the camp. "During the nine days I
was in Fallujah, all of the wounded women, kids and old people, none of them
were evacuated," Fasa’a said. "They either suffered to death, or
somehow survived." Many refugees tell stories
of having witnessed US troops killing already injured people, including
former fighters and noncombatants alike. "I watched them roll
over wounded people in the street with tanks," said Kassem Mohammed
Ahmed, a resident of Fallujah. "This happened so many times." Other refugees recount
similar stories. "I saw so many civilians killed there, and I saw several tanks roll over
the wounded in the streets," said Aziz Abdulla, 27 years old, who fled
the fighting last month. Another resident, Abu Aziz, said he also witnessed
American armored vehicles crushing people he believes were alive. Abdul Razaq Ismail, another
resident who fled Fallujah, said: "I saw dead bodies on the ground and
nobody could bury them because of the American snipers. The Americans were
dropping some of the bodies into the Euphrates near Fallujah." A man called Abu Hammad said
he witnessed US troops throwing Iraqi bodies into the Euphrates River. Others
nodded in agreement. Abu Hammed and others also said they saw Americans
shooting unarmed Iraqis who waved white flags. Believing that American and
Iraqi forces were bent on killing anyone who stayed in Fallujah, Hammad said
he watched people attempt to swim across the Euphrates to escape the siege.
"Even then the Americans shot them with rifles from the shore," he
said. "Even if some of them were holding a white flag or white clothes
over their heads to show they are not fighters, they were all shot." Associated Press
photographer Bilal Hussein reported witnessing similar events. After running
out of basic necessities and deciding to flee the city at the height of the
US-led assault, Hussein ran to the Euphrates. "I decided to
swim," Hussein told colleagues at the AP, who wrote up the
photographer’s harrowing story, "but I changed my mind after seeing US
helicopters firing on and killing people who tried to cross the river." Hussein said he saw soldiers
kill a family of five as they tried to traverse the Euphrates, before he
buried a man by the riverbank with his bare hands. "I kept walking along
the river for two hours and I could still see some US snipers ready to shoot
anyone who might swim," Hussein recounted. "I quit the idea of
crossing the river and walked for about five hours through orchards." A man named Khalil, who
asked The NewStandard not to use his last name for fear of reprisals, said he
had witnessed the shooting of civilians who were waving white flags while
they tried to escape the city. "They shot women and old men in the
streets," he said. "Then they shot anyone who tried to get their
bodies." "There are bodies the
Americans threw in the river," Khalil continued, noting that he
personally witnessed US troops using the Euphrates to dispose of Iraqi dead.
"And anyone who stayed thought they would be killed by the Americans, so
they tried to swim across the river. Even people who couldn’t swim tried to
cross the river. They drowned rather than staying to be killed by the
Americans," said Khalil. US military commanders
reported at least two incidents during which they say Iraqi resistance
fighters used white flags to lure Marines into dangerous situations,
including a well-orchestrated ambush. Proponents of relaxed rules
of engagement for US troops engaged in "counter-insurgency" warfare
have cited such incidents from last month’s experience in Fallujah as
arguments for more permissive combat regulations. Some have said US forces
should establish what used to be called "free-fire zones," wherein
any human being encountered is assumed to be hostile, and thus a legitimate
target, relieving American infantrymen of their obligation to distinguish and
protect civilians. But if the stories Fallujan witnesses have shared with TNS
are accurate, it appears the policy might have preceded the argument in this
case. US and Iraqi officials have
called the "pacification" of Fallujah a success and said that the
action was necessary to stabilize Iraq in preparation for the country’s
planned "transition to democracy." The military continues to deny
US-led forces killed significant numbers of civilians during November’s
nearly constant fighting and bombardment. External link: http://dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/iraq/000145.php |