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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
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February 21st,
2007 - U.S. Weighs In on Iraq Rape Case News article by the Associated Press |
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U.S. Weighs In on Iraq Rape Case By Robert H. Reid Associated Press Feb 21, 2007 6:39 PM ET The U.S. military on
Wednesday weighed into the politically explosive case of a Sunni woman
allegedly raped last weekend by three Iraqi policemen, announcing its own
investigation after the Shiite-run government dismissed her allegations as
false. The announcement, made to
reporters by the chief military spokesman, appeared aimed at containing the
growing political storm. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's exoneration of the
three officers after an investigation lasting less than a day has enflamed
Sunni-Shiite tensions over a case that strikes at the heart of Iraqi
attitudes toward protection of women. Al-Maliki, a Shiite, stoked
the political flames further Wednesday by firing a top Sunni official who
called for an international investigation into the woman's allegations, which
were broadcast Monday by satellite television stations across the Middle
East. Rape is considered not only
an assault on the victim but a grave offense against her entire family and
community. The allegations harkened back to the dark years of Saddam
Hussein's rule, when wives and daughters were raped in front of their
husbands and fathers to exact confessions from the men. Al-Maliki insists the charge
was fabricated by Sunni politicians and extremists to discredit the police
and the ongoing security crackdown in Baghdad. He announced a
"reward" for the officers who were implicated. Regardless of the truth,
many Sunnis considered the government's speed in clearing the policemen as an
insult to their community. Al-Maliki announced an investigation Monday
evening and cleared the officers the following morning. With the issue threatening
to spiral out of control, the U.S. military announced Wednesday that Gen.
David Petraeus, the new top U.S. commander in Iraq, had ordered his own investigation,
appointing an American officer to begin collecting evidence. "Once the Iraqi
government makes a decision on how they are going to move forward, there is
an investigating judicial process established and they need this information
from us, we will make that readily available to them," chief military
spokesman Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell said. The 20-year-old woman told
Arabic language television stations that she was detained Sunday by Iraqi
police at her west Baghdad home and accused of aiding Sunni insurgents. She was then taken to a
police garrison where she was raped by the three policemen before American
soldiers arrived and took her away, she said. The government and Sunni Arab
politicians have released her name, but The Associated Press has decided not
to publish it. Caldwell confirmed that
"an Iraqi woman" was brought to the U.S.-run hospital Sunday
evening and released the following morning but refused to give further
details or talk about her treatment. However, the prime
minister's office e-mailed news organizations what it said was a U.S. medical
report indicating no signs of rape. The one-page English
language form indicated blood and other tests had been performed and included
a handwritten note in English stating "no lacerations" or
"obvious bruising." The word rape was not used. Iraqi women rarely report
rape because of shame and fear of public scorn. Victims even risk death at
the hands of male relatives seeking to purge the family's honor. Some
officials, including Sunnis, discounted the woman's claim simply because she
came forward publicly. "What has been said
about the woman's rape seems like a fantasy," said Aida Osayran, a Sunni
lawmaker and member of parliament's Human Rights Committee. "It is
certain that what she says is improper because it is not in our customs and
traditions." Meanwhile, Iraqi officials
sought to discredit the claim by casting dispersions on the woman's
character. Brig. Gen. Qassim Moussawi,
spokesman for the Baghdad security operations, said the woman had been in an
"urfi" marriage, a common-law relationship that is not legally
recognized in most Arab countries, and that she knew her husband only by his
first name. Moussawi said the woman was
detained in a house which was not hers and that clothing found there was
traced to a man whose body was found nearby. He did not elaborate. Such comments did little to
calm the outrage among many Sunnis, who have little confidence in the
Shiite-led police forces. In Mosul, a few hundred
Sunni students staged a rare, half-hour rally at the local university campus
to demand the government reopen the investigation. Participants by and large
accepted the woman's account. Similar sentiments echoed
across the Arab world, especially in Sunni countries deeply suspicious of
Iraq's Shiite-led government. Television stations in Egypt and the Persian
Gulf have reported extensively on the case since Monday. Columnist Issa al-Enezi
wrote in Kuwait's Al-Siyassah newspaper than "instead of ordering a
serious investigation," al-Maliki "rewards the perpetrators
alleging the girl was making up the story to foil the security plan." "Rewarding criminals is
encouraging them. It is denying justice and instigating infighting among
Muslims. May God help Iraqis put up with their extremist government,"
al-Enezi wrote. Al-Maliki's office gave no
reason for dismissing prominent cleric Ahmed Abdul-Ghafour al-Samaraie as
chairman of the Sunni Endowments, a government agency that takes care of
Sunni mosques and shrines. On Monday, al-Samaraie said
the rape allegations proved the failure of U.S. and Iraqi security forces to
protect Baghdad's citizens. He called the allegations "a horrific
crime" and called for an international investigation "into this
crime." Following his dismissal,
al-Samaraie, speaking from Amman in neighboring Jordan, said al-Maliki lacked
the authority to fire him and repeated his criticisms about the rape case. "We will continue to
speak with courage, and we will not fear anyone but God," al-Samaraie
said. "I am not concerned about a job because the honor of Iraqi women
is a thousand times more valuable than government jobs." External link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070221/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_rape Rape Accusation Reinforces
Fears in a Divided Iraq By Marc Santora New York Times February 21, 2007 Baghdad, Feb. 20 - The most
wicked acts are spoken of openly and without reserve in Iraq. Torture,
stabbings and bodies ripped to pieces in bombings are all part of the daily
conversation. Rape is different. Rape is not mentioned by the
victims, and rarely by the authorities. And when it is discussed publicly, as
in several high-profile cases involving American soldiers and Iraqi women, it
is usually left to the relatives of the victim to give the explicit details. So when a 20-year-old Sunni
woman from Baghdad appeared on the satellite television station Al Jazeera on
Monday night with a horrific account of kidnapping and sexual assault at the
hands of three officers in the Shiite-dominated Iraqi National Police, people
across the country were stunned, some disbelieving, others horrified, but all
riveted. Almost immediately, Shiite
leaders lined up to condemn the woman, calling her charges propaganda aimed
at undermining the new security campaign. Sunni politicians offered the woman
their support. Whatever the truth of the accusation, though, it played to
sectarian fears on both sides. For many Shiites, the
charges appeared to be an attempt to smear them and attack the Shiite-led
government; for Sunnis, the woman’s account only highlighted what they
already believed to be true - that the Iraqi government cares little for
justice and promotes a Shiite agenda. Bitter exchanges between
politicians of various sects were relayed to millions on television,
interspersed with clips of the woman telling her story, her face veiled, just
the tears in her eyes visible. The Americans, who have
advisers working with the Iraqi National Police, found themselves caught in
the middle without answers. The woman said the Americans had rescued her from
the officers and gave her medical treatment. The American-backed, Shiite-led
government said the Americans would show the woman’s claims to be false. The American military said
only that it was investigating the charges. That was also the first
response of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who issued a statement soon
after the woman appeared on television on Monday, promising a full
investigation and the most severe punishment for anyone involved. Only hours later, however,
Mr. Maliki reversed himself. His office released a second statement after
midnight, that one calling the woman a liar and a wanted criminal and going
on to praise the officers involved. “It has been shown after
medical examinations that the woman had not been subjected to any sexual
attack whatsoever, and that there are three outstanding arrest warrants
against her issued by security agencies,” said the second statement. “After
the allegations have been proven to be false, the prime minister has ordered
that the officers accused be rewarded.” The government did not
elaborate on the statement or say why the prime minister had so quickly
reversed himself. His office only said that “known parties” had been
responsible for the allegations. But in siding with the
security forces, Mr. Maliki threatened to only heighten the tensions
surrounding the already highly charged case. His government also released the
woman’s name, which is not being published by The New York Times. Sunni politicians rushed to
her defense, accusing the government of revealing its true sectarian bias. The case “should not be
dealt with on a sectarian basis,” said Saleem Abdullah, a spokesman for the
Tawafiq bloc of Sunni parties, which helped the woman come forward. “She is a
sister for all Iraqis.” He went on to say the
government’s handling of the issue could undermine its credibility in
directing the security crackdown. With fears of violence
pervasive throughout the country, many Iraqis stay inside their homes
whenever they can. Satellite television is their connection to the outside
world and, just as often, their own country. On the two most prominent
channels, Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, they would have heard the woman telling
her story over and over. If she made up the story, it
was an elaborate piece of propaganda and the contradictory statements by the
Iraqi government only added to its power. The woman was lying on a bed
as she was interviewed, a blue blanket pulled up nearly to her chin. She had
a light pink scarf covering her hair and a black scarf covering her face. She said she was taken from
her house on Sunday morning by the National Police while her husband was out,
something no one disputes. The officers, she said, were looking for weapons
but when they arrived at the police garrison, they accused her of cooking for
Sunni insurgents. It was at the garrison that
she says the first officer raped her, covering her mouth to muffle her
screams. Others were in the room at the time. “I begged one of them to get
me out,” she said. “He said, ‘No, no. I will after you give me one thing.’ ”
She asked what that was, and he told her he wanted to “get close to me.” She
said she was led into a small room with a bed and a machine gun against the
wall. Another officer came in and told the first man to leave. “Leave her to
me,” the man said, according to her account. “I swear on the Koran and
the Prophet Muhammad, I am not that kind of woman,” she said she told the
officer. He repeated her words scornfully and beat her with a black water
hose, she said. “If we want something, we
will take; and things we don’t want, we will kill,” the woman said she was
told. She said that the attack was
videotaped and that she was told she would be killed if she told anyone about
it. A nurse who said she treated
the woman after the attack said that she saw signs of sexual and physical
assault. The woman, according to the nurse, could identify one of her
attackers because he was not wearing a mask, as were the others, and could
identify a second attacker by a mark on his genitals. The nurse would speak only
on the condition of anonymity because she feared that Shiite militiamen would
kill her for speaking out. The nurse said she was also wanted by the
authorities, who believed the clinic she works at was used by insurgents. She said the clinic was
simply for Sunnis in the Amil neighborhood who were too afraid to the visit
the Shiite-run hospital. In Amil, which has been
almost totally cleared of Sunnis, people were outraged, but not surprised.
The woman’s charges seemed to confirm their worst fears that the security
forces were little better than militias in uniform. A spokeswoman for the
American military here in Baghdad, Lt. Col. Josslyn Aberle, confirmed that
the woman had been detained by the Iraqi National Police on Sunday morning,
but said that everything that happened after that was under investigation. But a senior Iraqi official,
speaking only on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to be
seen as critical of the Americans, said that he had alerted the American
ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, on the day the woman made her
allegations, cautioning him that if the case was not handled delicately, it
could further inflame sectarian passions. A spokesman for Mr.
Khalilzad could not be reached. The sectarian tensions
further complicated an already delicate topic in Iraqi society. The most high-profile rape
cases since the American invasion four years ago have involved charges
against American soldiers. And even in those cases, it was left to the
relatives to speak publicly. Iraqis said they could not remember the case of
a rape victim going on television. Sabah Salem, a professor at
the Baghdad University College of Law, said that while men were occasionally
charged with rape in Iraq and punished, many cases went unreported. “Rape cases in Iraq are
viewed as a shameful thing to any woman regardless of the fact that she is
the victim,” he said in an interview. The charges and
countercharges occurred on yet another day of unrelenting violence in the
capital, as two car bombs and a suicide bomber, in separate attacks, killed
at least 17 people. One of the car bombs exploded in a neighborhood that was
visited earlier in the day by Mr. Maliki, on a rare foray outside of the
Green Zone. North of Baghdad, a truck
carrying chlorine exploded, killing nine people, The Associated Press
reported. More than 150 others were made violently ill by the toxic fumes. Damien Cave and Iraqi
employees of The New York Times contributed reporting. Copyright 2007 The New York
Times Company External link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/world/middleeast/21iraq.html |