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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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February 23rd,
2007 - Rape Charge Supported by Strong Evidence, Sunni Official Says |
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Rape Charge Supported by Strong
Evidence, Sunni Official Says By Richard Mauer and Mohammed al Dulaimy McClatchy Newspapers Feb. 23, 2007 Baghdad, Iraq - A Sunni
Muslim woman's allegations that she was raped by three members of Iraq's
Shiite-dominated police force took a startling turn Friday when a Sunni human
rights official said that a government committee has uncovered strong
evidence to support her claims. The official, Omar
al-Jabouri, said one of the woman's alleged attackers and an accomplice have
been in custody since Wednesday and that a four-member special investigative
panel has continued to investigate the case despite Iraqi Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki's public statements that the woman lied. In a move that's also likely
to anger Iraq's Shiites, U.S. troops on Friday detained the son of a
prominent Shiite leader for several hours. Amar al-Hakim, whose father,
Abdulazziz al-Hakim, heads the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in
Iraq, was taken into custody at a roadblock in eastern Iraq shortly after he
crossed over from Iran. U.S. officials didn't
respond to requests for information, but in Najaf, Anwar al-Shimirti, a
provincial council member and SCIRI representative, said Hakim was carrying a
"huge amount of money" when he was stopped. Al-Shimirti said the
Americans returned the money when they released al-Hakim, but kept several of
his entourage's vehicles. The panel investigating the
rape allegation is led by the head of the Interior Ministry's intelligence
service, Gen. Hussein Kamal. Al-Jabouri is an observer to the panel on behalf
of Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni. The investigation is
complicated because the woman has been charged with supporting the Sunni
insurgency, al-Jabouri said. In the highly charged
sectarian environment of Iraq, the rape allegations have stirred intense
passions since the woman first made her claims in an interview with
Al-Jazeera television on Monday. The woman said the police officers had taken
her from her home on Sunday while her husband was away, raped her at the
police station and released her only when American soldiers showed up. Al-Maliki quickly announced
an investigation, then four hours later denounced the woman and praised the
officers. On Wednesday, his office released a portion of a medical
examination that Iraqi officials said proved there had been no rape. U.S.
rape experts, however, said it showed injuries consistent with sexual
assault. American officials have said
little about the case, other than to acknowledge that the woman was treated
at an American-run hospital. Sunni politicians said the
quick rejection by al-Maliki, a Shiite, of the woman's allegations prove that
his government is unwilling to protect Sunnis from abuse at the hands of
Iraq's Shiite-dominated security forces. Fueling those flames was a
report Thursday that another Sunni woman had been raped by Iraqi soldiers in
the northern city of Tal Afar. In that case, an Iraqi army officer and three
enlisted men confessed. On Friday, an al-Qaida Web
site posted a message from Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, al-Qaida's leader in Iraq,
saying that 300 Iraqis had volunteered to become suicide bombers to avenge
the 20-year-old's honor, while 50 offered to wed her if she weren't already
married. A spokesman for the prime
minister's office couldn't be reached for comment. Al-Jabouri said that even as
al-Maliki's office was denouncing the woman on Wednesday, the investigative
panel was conducting a lineup of suspects for the woman and her husband in
the police station where she said she had been raped. The building is the
headquarters for the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Brigade of the Iraqi National Police
and is in the Amil section of southwest Baghdad. Al-Jabouri said the
committee first toured the room where the woman said the attack occurred and
found that her description was accurate. Then all police officers with access
to the building were brought in and lined up. The woman started at one end of
the line, looking at each face. While two of her attackers were masked, the
third wasn't, she had told the investigators. She identified one officer
as having been in the room when the attack occurred. He didn't join the men,
but when she begged for help, he turned his back and left the room, she said. The officer was removed from
the line and detained. She continued looking at the faces, then stopped
again. This time she shouted, "This is the one who did it to me!"
She hauled back and slapped his face. Then she collapsed in a heap,
al-Jabouri said. While she lay on the floor,
the second officer was escorted from the room. As the members of the
committee tried to revive her, someone brought in a man wearing slacks and a
red keffiyeh, the Arab headdress. One of the investigators lifted the woman's
face and showed it to the man. "Is that the one?"
he asked. "Yes," said the man
in the keffiyah. Al-Jabouri said no one told
him what that was about, but he later heard Gen. Kamal tell a radio
interviewer that the woman had been charged with being an accessory to
kidnapping after the victim positively identified her as the cook in a Sunni
insurgent house where he was kept. Al-Jabouri said he got
involved in the case on Sunday when someone - possibly the woman's husband -
called on behalf of the woman. The matter sounded serious, he said, so he
contacted Sunni tribal and political figures with personal connections to
al-Maliki, who told the prime minister of the allegations. The woman showed up in
al-Jabouri's office on Monday with her medical records from the American
hospital. A copy was given to the committee, which might explain how
al-Maliki's office obtained the document, which was released to reporters
later. Special correspondent Qassim
Zein in Najaf contributed to this report. External link: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/special_packages/iraq/16770724.htm |