Documents: Violence unconstrained
2004 was a year of complete and reckless disregard for all international legal conventions governing conduct during wars and conflicts. The following examples taken from the Iraqi occupation are among the most flagrant.
Violence against detainees: Abu Ghraib prison
"The events of October through December 2003 on the night shift of Tier 1 at Abu Ghraib prison were acts of brutality and purposeless sadism.
"[...] The abuses were not just the failure of some individuals to follow known standards, and they are more than the failure of a few leaders to enforce proper discipline. There is both institutional and personal responsibility at higher levels."
Report of the Independent Panel to Review Department of Defense Detention Operations, released in August 2004.
"The torture and mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison was the predictable result of the Bush administration's decision to circumvent international law.
"[...] The horrors of Abu Ghraib were not simply the acts of individual soldiers. Abu Ghraib resulted from decisions made by the Bush administration to cast the rules aside.
"[...] In the aftermath of the 11 September attacks, the Bush administration decided that the war on terror permitted the United States to circumvent the restraints of international law. The Geneva Conventions were sidestepped as 'obsolete'.
"[...] Until the publication of the Abu Ghraib photographs, Bush administration officials took at best a "see no evil, hear no evil" approach to reports of detainee mistreatment.
"[...] But the rule of law has not arrived [...] the country is still beset by the legacy of human rights abuses of the former government, as well as new ones that have emerged under the occupation."
Human Rights Watch, "Bush Policies Led to Abuse in Iraq", January/June 2004
"Methods of physical and psychological coercion were used by the military intelligence in a systematic way to gain confessions and extract information.
"[...] military intelligence officers told the ICRC that 70 to 90 per cent of those in custody in Iraq last year had been arrested by mistake."
ICRC Report, February 2004
"Iraq has turned into one big Guantanamo."
Adil Allami, a lawyer with the Human Rights Organisation of Iraq, October 2003.
Violence against civilians: the case of Falluja
"The US-backed government put rebel losses at more than 2,000, although unit commanders later revealed their troops had orders to shoot all males of fighting age seen on the streets, armed or unarmed, and ruined homes across the city attest to a strategy of overwhelming force."
AFP newswire, December 2004
"Human rights groups say the occupying powers have failed in their duty to catalogue the deaths, giving the impression that ordinary Iraqis' lives are worth less than those of their soldiers for whom detailed statistics are available."
BBC report, October 2004
"Recent reports from Falluja raise serious concerns that grave violations of the laws of war protecting both civilians and combatants who are no longer taking part in hostilities (hors de combat) are taking place.
"[...] The deliberate shooting of unarmed and wounded fighters who pose no immediate threat is a war crime under international law and there is therefore an obligation on the US authorities to investigate all such reports and to hold perpetrators of such crimes accountable before the law."
Amnesty International, November 2004
"A year after US-led forces launched war on Iraq, the promise of improved human rights for Iraqis remains far from realised. Most Iraqis still feel unsafe in a country ravaged by violence.
"[...] Coalition Forces appear in many cases to be using the climate of violence to justify violating the very human rights standards they are supposed to be upholding.
"[...] Scores of civilians have been killed apparently as a result of excessive use of force by US troops or have been shot dead in disputed circumstances.
"[...] Some of the 10,402 claims reportedly filed (by victims or relatives of victims for personal injury) concerned incidents in which US soldiers had shot dead or seriously wounded Iraqi civilians with no apparent cause.
"[...] No US soldier has been prosecuted for illegally killing an Iraqi civilian. Iraqi courts, because of an order issued by the US- led authority in Baghdad in June, are forbidden from hearing cases against US soldiers or any other foreign troops or foreign officials in Iraq. In effect, US soldiers are operating with total impunity.
"[...] AI also continues to receive many reports of members of the Coalition Forces damaging and destroying property without justification during house searches. Soldiers have smashed their way into cars, houses and cupboards after the owners have offered keys and begged that they be used. In numerous cases, property and large sums of money have been 'confiscated' during an arrest and not returned when the person is released."
Amnesty International, March 2004
"Every week, hundreds more innocent Iraqis are dying as a result of a disastrous US-led campaign that is propelling Iraq into deeper and deeper chaos. So long as US armed forces remain in Iraq, the grim work of recording and honouring the innocent victims will, sadly, be our daily task."
Eyes Wide Open: The Human Cost of the Iraq War (A travelling memorial created by the American Friends Service Committee), September 2004.
Violence against children in Iraq
Humanitarian work in Iraq has been crippled by the fact that international aid agencies, including the UN, have been directly targeted and forced to conduct their humanitarian operations largely from neighbouring countries.
In Iraq, the burden of occupation falls unequally upon children. Half of the country's 24.5 million population is under 18. Currently, one in eight Iraqi children die before the age of five -- one of the world's worst child mortality rates.
"Armed groups, either opposed to the occupation or in a witch hunt for former Baathists, have been responsible for the deliberate and indiscriminate killing of hundreds of civilians and the murderous attacks against the UN headquarters and humanitarian agencies like the International Committee of the Red Cross."
Amnesty International, April 2004
"This protracted fighting and instability is wreaking havoc on Iraqi children,"
UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy, November 2004
Compiled by Rasha Saad
Recommend
Comment
Printer-friendly
