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Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War
Adopted on 12 August 1949 by
the Diplomatic Conference for the Establishment of
International Conventions for
the Protection of Victims of War, held in Geneva
from 21 April to 12 August,
1949
entry into force 21
October 1950
Article 2
In addition to the provisions which shall be
implemented in peacetime, the present Convention shall apply to all
cases of declared war or of any other armed conflict which may arise
between two or more of the High Contracting Parties, even if the state of
war is not recognized by one of them.
[That's the US/UK "Coalition" even if they try to claim that it wasn't
really a war, they can't deny that it was an armed conflict as they did in
Afghanistan.]
The Convention shall also apply
to all cases of partial or total occupation of the territory of a High
Contracting Party, even if the said occupation meets with no armed
resistance.
Although one of the Powers in conflict may not be a party to the present
Convention, the Powers who are parties thereto shall remain bound by it in
their mutual relations. They shall furthermore be bound by the Convention
in relation to the said Power, if the latter accepts and applies the
provisions thereof.
Article 16
The wounded and sick, as well as the infirm, and expectant
mothers, shall be the object of particular protection and respect.
As far as military considerations allow, each Party to the conflict shall
facilitate the steps taken to search for the killed and wounded, to assist
the shipwrecked and other persons exposed to grave danger, and to protect
them against pillage and ill-treatment.
Article 17
The Parties to the conflict shall endeavour to conclude local agreements
for the removal from besieged or encircled areas, of wounded, sick,
infirm, and aged persons, children and maternity cases, and for the
passage of ministers of all religions, medical personnel and medical
equipment on their way to such areas.
Article 18
Civilian hospitals organized to give care to the wounded and sick, the
infirm and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of
attack, but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties
to the conflict.
States which are Parties to a conflict shall provide all civilian
hospitals with certificates showing that they are civilian hospitals and
that the buildings which they occupy are not used for any purpose which
would deprive these hospitals of protection in accordance with Article 19.
Civilian hospitals shall be marked by means of the emblem provided for in
Article 38 of the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition
of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field of August 12, 1949,
but only if so authorized by the State.
The Parties to the conflict shall, in so far as military considerations
permit, take the necessary steps to make the distinctive emblems
indicating civilian hospitals clearly visible to the enemy land, air and
naval forces in order to obviate the possibility of any hostile action.
In view of the dangers to which hospitals may be exposed by being close to
military objectives, it is recommended that such hospitals be situated as
far as possible from such objectives.
Article 19
The protection to which civilian hospitals are entitled shall not cease
unless they are used to commit, outside their humanitarian duties, acts
harmful to the enemy. Protection may, however, cease only after due
warning has been given, naming, in all appropriate cases, a reasonable
time limit, and after such warning has remained unheeded.
The fact that sick or wounded members of the armed forces are nursed in
these hospitals, or the presence of small arms and ammunition taken from
such combatants which have not yet been handed to the proper service,
shall not be considered to be acts harmful to the enemy.
Article 20
Persons regularly and solely engaged in the operation and administration
of civilian hospitals, including the personnel engaged in the search for,
removal and transporting of and caring for wounded and sick civilians, the
infirm and maternity cases, shall be respected and protected.
In occupied territory and in zones of military operations, the above
personnel shall be recognizable by means of an identity card certifying
their status, bearing the photograph of the holder and embossed with the
stamp of the responsible authority, and also by means of a stamped,
water-resistant armlet which they shall wear on the left arm while
carrying out their duties. This armlet shall be issued by the State and
shall bear the emblem provided for in Article 38 of the Geneva Convention
for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed
Forces in the Field of August 12, 1949.
Other personnel who are engaged in the operation and administration of
civilian hospitals shall be entitled to respect and protection and to wear
the armlet, as provided in and under the conditions prescribed in this
Article, while they are employed on such duties. The identity card shall
state the duties on which they are employed.
The management of each hospital shall at all times hold at the disposal of
the competent national or occupying authorities an up-to-date list of such
personnel.
PART III
STATUS AND TREATMENT OF PROTECTED PERSONS
SECTION I
PROVISIONS COMMON TO THE TERRITORIES OF
THE PARTIES
TO TEE CONFLICT AND TO OCCUPIED
TERRITORIES
Article 27
Protected persons are entitled, in all
circumstances, to respect for their persons, their honour, their family
rights, their religious convictions and practices, and their manners and
customs. They shall at all times be humanely treated, and shall be
protected especially against all acts of violence or threats thereof and
against insults and public curiosity.
Women shall be especially protected
against any attack on their honour, in particular against rape, enforced
prostitution, or any form of indecent assault.
Without prejudice to the provisions
relating to their state of health, age and sex, all protected persons
shall be treated with the same consideration by the Party to the conflict
in whose power they are, without any adverse distinction based, in
particular, on race, religion or political opinion.
However, the Parties to the conflict may
take such measures of control and security in regard to protected persons
as may be necessary as a result of the war.
Article 28
The presence of a protected person may not
be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations.
Article 29
The Party to the conflict in whose hands
protected persons may be is responsible for the treatment accorded to them
by its agents, irrespective of any individual responsibility which may be
incurred.
Article 32
The High Contracting Parties specifically
agree that each of them is prohibited from taking any measure of such a
character as to cause the physical suffering or extermination of protected
persons in their hands. This prohibition applies not only to murder,
torture, corporal punishment, mutilation and medical or scientific
experiments not necessitated by the medical treatment of a protected
person but also to any other measures of brutality whether applied by
civilian or military agents.
Article 33
Pillage is prohibited
SECTION 111
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
Article 47
Protected persons who are in occupied
territory shall not be deprived, in any case or in any manner whatsoever,
of the benefits of the present Convention by any change introduced, as the
result of the occupation of a territory, into the institutions or
government of the said territory, nor by any agreement concluded between
the authorities of the occupied territories and the Occupying Power, nor
by any annexation by the latter of the whole or part of the occupied
territory.
Article 53
Any destruction by the Occupying Power of
real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to
private persons, or to the State, or to other public authorities, or to
social or cooperative organizations, is prohibited, except where such
destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.
Article 55
To the fullest extent of the means
available to it the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and
medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the
necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources
of the occupied territory are inadequate.
Article 59 [Humanitarian Aid]
If the whole or part of the population of
an occupied territory is inadequately supplied, the Occupying Power shall
agree to relief schemes on behalf of the said population, and shall
facilitate them by all the means at its disposal.
Such schemes, which may be undertaken
either by States or by impartial humanitarian organizations such as the
International Committee of the Red Cross, shall consist, in particular, of
the provision of consignments of foodstuffs, medical supplies and
clothing.
All Contracting Parties shall permit the
free passage of these consignments and shall guarantee their protection.
A Power granting free passage to
consignments on their way to territory occupied by an adverse Party to the
conflict shall, however, have the right to search the consignments, to
regulate their passage according to prescribed times and routes, and to be
reasonably satisfied through the Protecting Power that these consignments
are to be used for the relief of the needy population and are not to be
used for the benefit of the Occupying Power.
Article 60
Relief consignments shall in no way
relieve the Occupying Power of any of its responsibilities under Articles
55, 56 and 59. The Occupying Power shall in no way whatsoever divert
relief consignments from the purpose for which they are intended, except
in cases of urgent necessity, in the interests of the population of the
occupied territory and with the consent of the Protecting Power.
Convention (IV) respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land and its
annex: Regulations concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land. The
Hague, 18 October 1907.
Art. 43. The authority of the legitimate power
having in fact passed into the hands of the occupant, the latter shall
take all the measures in his power to restore, and ensure, as far as
possible, public order and safety, while respecting, unless absolutely
prevented, the laws in force in the country.
See
Articles 2, 4, 5, and 7 of the Hague
Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of
Armed Conflict. The United States has
not ratified this Convention in the over forty years it has been in
force (Iraq has ratified it; for the protection of cultural property
generally, see
here).
Eyewitness in Baghdad Says US Troops Murdered Building Guards,
Encouraged Looting to Create Phony Scenes of "Iraqis Expressing Anger at
Saddam Regime"
Malmoe, Sweden -- April 11, 2003 -- Khaled Bayomi looks a bit surprised
while watching the American officer on TV express his regrets that they
don't have any resources to stop the looting in Baghdad.
"I happened to be there just as the US forces told people to commence
looting."
Khaled Bayomi departed from Malmoe, Sweden to Baghdad as a volunteer
'human shield', and arrived on the same day the fighting began. About this
he is able to tell plenty, and for a long time, but the most interesting
part of his story is his eyewitness account about the great surge of
looting now taking place.
"During the morning, everyone who tried to cross the streets had been
fired upon. But during this strange silence people eventually became
curious. After three-quarters of an hour, the first Baghdad citizens
dared to come forward. At that moment the US solders shot two Sudanese
guards posted in ront of a local administrative building on the other side
of the Haifa Avenue.
"I was just 300 meters away when the guards where murdered. Then they shot
the building entrance to pieces, and their Arabic translators in the tanks
told the people to run 'for grabs' inside the building. Rumors spread
rapidly, and the offices were cleaned out. Moments later tanks broke down
the doors to the Justice Department, which was located in a neighboring
building, and the looting was carried forward into there as well.
"I was standing in a big crowd of civilians that saw all this together
with me. They did not take any part in the looting, but were to afraid to
take any action against it. Many of them had tears of shame in their eyes.
"The next morning, the looting spread to the Museum of Modern Art, which
lies another 500 meters to the north. There as well, two crowds were
present -- one that was looting, and another one that saw this disgrace
happen."
Do you mean to say that it was the US troops that initiated the looting?
"Absolutely. The lack of scenes of joy had the US forces in need of images
of Iraqis who in different ways demonstrated their disgust with Saddam's
regime."
But people in Baghdad tore down a big statue of Saddam ...
"They did? It was a US tank that did this, close to the hotel where all
the journalists live. Until noon on the 9th of April, I didn't see a
single torn picture of Saddam anywhere. If people had wanted to turn over
statues, they could have gone for some of the many smaller ones, without
the help of an American tank. Had this been a political uproar then people
would
have turned over statues first and looted afterwards."
Back home in Sweden, Khaled Bayomi is a PhD student at the University of
Lund, where for ten years he has been teaching and researching conflicts
in
the Middle East. He is very well informed about the conflicts, as well as
on the propaganda war.
Here's the link from the article:
http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/ Those of you with AOL will find that
your server "forbids" access. AOL also (at least was last time I checked)
forbidding access to Al-Jazeera, too.
Iraq: Stripped naked and humiliated by US soldiers
Amnesty International expressed concern today at the
disturbing article and images portrayed in the Norwegian newspaper
Dagbladet which show American soldiers escorting naked Iraqi men through a
park in Baghdad. The pictures reveal that someone has written the words
'Ali Baba - Haram(i)' (which means Ali Baba - thief) in Arabic on the
prisoners' chests.
The article quotes a US military officer as saying that
this treatment is an effective method of deterring thieves from entering
the park and is a method which will be used again; another US military
officer is quoted as saying that US soldiers are not allowed to treat
prisoners inhumanely.
"If these pictures are accurate, this is an appalling way
to treat prisoners. Such degrading treatment is a clear violation of the
responsibilities of the occupying powers," Amnesty International said
today.
"Whatever the reason for their detention, these men must
at all times be treated humanely. The US authorities must investigate this
incident and publicly release their findings."
Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention clearly states
that "Protected persons are entitled in all circumstances, to respect for
their persons, their honour, their family rights, their religious
convictions and practices, and their manner and customs. They shall at all
times be humanely treated, and shall be protected especially against all
acts of violence or threats thereof and against insults and public
curiosity".
For a full copy of Amnesty International's report: Iraq:
Responsibilities of the occupying powers please go
here:
Iraqi Children Refused Treatment by US Army Doctors
Tuesday, June 24, 2003
Three children severely burned
after setting fire to a bag of explosives they discovered near a military
base were refused aid by U.S. Army doctors.
"I have never seen in almost 14 years of Army experience anything that
callous," Sgt. David J. Borell told the Associated Press. "I cannot
imagine the heartlessness required to look into the eyes of a child in
horrid pain and suffering and, with medical resources only a brief trip up
the road, ignore their plight as though they are insignificant."
Borrell, serving at an Army airfield in Balad (approximately 60 miles
north of Baghdad), summoned doctors when approached by Falah Mutlaq, the
children's desperate father, who had been unable to get them treatment at
a local hospital.
The U.S. Army defended the doctors' inaction. Public affairs officer, Maj.
David Accetta from the 3rd Corps Support Command, stated the children's
injuries failed to meet the criteria for Army aid, namely loss of life,
limb or eyesight resulting from non-chronic illnesses or infliction by
U.S. forces.
"Our goal is for the Iraqis to use their own existing infrastructure and
become self-sufficient, not dependent on U.S. forces for medical care,''
Accetta told the AP via e-mail.
Borrell, a father of two young girls himself, said he felt betrayed by the
Army, where he's served for over 10 years.
"After today, I wonder if I will still be able to carry the title
'soldier' with any pride at all."
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The Americans and the British are the occupying powers in Iraq and
have a legal and moral obligation to stop the looting and destruction of
essential public services. You can't go into a country, destroy its
police forces and infrastructure, and then ignore the damage that occurs
as a result of your actions. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan
stated that the Hague Regulation and the Geneva Conventions on the
duties of occupying powers apply to this conflict (see articles 55, 56,
59, 60 and 63 of the Geneva
Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, and
article 43 of the
Hague Regulations of 1907). The United Nations Office of the
Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq (UNOHCI),
UNICEF,
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the World Health
Organization have all voiced
complaints about the failure of the 'coalition' to restrain the
looting and lawlessness. UNOHCI
stated:
"This inaction by the occupying powers is in violation of the Geneva
conventions, which explicitly state that medical establishments must be
protected, that the wounded and sick must be the object of particular
protection and respect, and that hospital personnel must be protected
and must be free to carry on their duties."
The general lawlessness has caused great problems with
the distribution
of aid. Both the International Committee of the Red Cross and Médecins
sans Frontières have
suspended their operations in Baghdad as they can't ensure the
safety of their workers. Just considering Baghdad (leaving Basra, Kirkuk,
Mosul, Najaf, Nasiriya, Umm Qasr, etc., for later):
Baghdad is now a city of
looting - government offices, embassies, the offices of UNICEF, and
private businesses.
Looters have
ransacked
the al-Kindi hospital and that hospital is now
closed, and
another hospital, Medical City, was surrounded by armed men and was
running low on water and medical supplies. Many smaller hospitals have
closed for fear of being looted. Medical staff and civilian volunteers
are defending some of Baghdad's hospitals with
guns. The looting is mostly just useless violence, with much of the
looted medical equipment having
no
value to the looters.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has said that the
medical system in Baghdad has
collapsed due to the lawlessness, and that there were risks of
epidemics because the city was also without clean water and electricity.
Tens of thousands of people are engaged in the
looting, with absolutely no effort by the American troops to stop
them. The looters are setting public buildings on
fire.
- Shopkeepers are trying to defend their shops with guns. In one case
the looters told the American troops that an armed shopkeeper was a
member of Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen paramilitary force, so the
Americans shot and
killed him.
- Here is the story of
Yarmouk hospital, including that of a nine-month old baby girl
named Rawand, who, when her family returned to their home for the first
time since the war, crawled over to a cluster bomb, and was killed.
- In another ridiculous attempt to find Saddam, and in a more
official form of lawlessness, the Americans
bombed the Imam al-Adham mosque in the Adhamiya neighborhood
- Continuing attacks on American soldiers in the supposedly liberated
Baghdad have led to panicked troops firing on and
killing unarmed civilians. "The marines shot anything that they
considered remotely a threat." From Robert
Fisk:
"After a gun battle in the Adamiya area during the morning, an
American Marine sniper sitting atop the palace gate wounded three
civilians, including a little girl, in a car that failed to halt - then
shot and killed a man who had walked on to his balcony to discover the
source of the firing. Within minutes, the sniper also shot dead the
driver of another car and wounded two more passengers in that vehicle,
including a young woman."
British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon (and shouldn't 'hoon' be a term to
describe a particularly loathsome individual? - it already means, amongst
other things, a despicable person, or a hooligan, or a lout, or a pimp,
in
slang)
said, referring to the looting in response to a question in the
British Parliament:
"The hon. Gentleman referred to looting, and I know that right hon.
and hon. Members will be concerned about that issue; indeed, I have
sought to identify the extent of it. Fortunately, it appears so far to be
confined to Iraqi citizens - shall I use the word - 'liberating' those
items that are in the charge of the regime by entering its former
facilities and the secret organisations, and redistributing that wealth
among the Iraqi people. I regard such behaviour as good practice,
perhaps, but that is not to say that we should not guard against more
widespread civil disturbances."
Iraqis are cowering in their homes afraid that they will be murdered
for what few things they own, but Hoon, in perhaps a tribute to 'Old
Labour', seems to think it is just a good form of redistribution of
wealth!
Key
Bridges Are Reopened in Baghdad
Saturday April 12,
2003 9:10 AM
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. forces reopened two strategic bridges
Saturday in the heart of Baghdad and crowds of looters surged across -
taking advantage of access to new territory that had not already been
plundered. U.S. forces did nothing to stop them.
Iraqis expressed increasing frustration over lawlessness in the
capital city, which continued for a fourth straight day since the arrival
of U.S. troops and the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. Looters have
ransacked hospitals and schools and set fire to several government
buildings.
``The Americans have disappointed us all. This country will never be
operational for at least a year or two,'' said Abbas Reta, 51, an
engineer and father of five.
``I've seen nothing new since Saddam's fall,'' he said. ``All that we
have seen is looting. The Americans are responsible. One round from their
guns and all the looting would have stopped.''
Pentagon Was Told Of Risk to Museums
U.S. Urged to Save Iraq's Historic Artifacts
Monday, April 14, 2003
In the months leading up to the Iraq war, U.S. scholars repeatedly urged
the Defense Department to protect Iraq's priceless archaeological
heritage from looters, and warned specifically that the National Museum
of Antiquities was the single most important site in the country.
Late in January, a mix of scholars, museum directors, art collectors and
antiquities dealers asked for and were granted a meeting at the Pentagon
to discuss their misgivings. McGuire Gibson, an Iraq specialist at the
University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, said yesterday that he went
back twice more, and he and colleagues peppered Defense Department
officials with e-mail reminders in the weeks before the war began.
"I thought I was given assurances that sites and museums would be
protected," Gibson said. Instead, even with U.S. forces firmly in control
of Baghdad last week, looters breached the museum, trashed its galleries,
burned its records, invaded its vaults and smashed or carried off
thousands of artifacts dating from the founding of ancient Sumer around
3,500 B.C. to the end of Islam's Abbasid Caliphate in 1258 A.D.
Asked yesterday about the looting of the museum, Defense Secretary Donald
H. Rumsfeld blamed the chaos that ensues "when you go from a
dictatorship" to a new order. "We didn't allow it. It happened," Rumsfeld
said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "There's a transition period, and
no one is in control. There is still fighting in Baghdad. We don't allow
bad things to happen. Bad things happen in life, and people do loot."
Of course, coming from the American crony capitalist culture, thugs like
Rumsfeld and Bush look upon this type of looting as normal activity. It
is just the beginnings of entrepreneurism in Iraqi society. Some of the
friends of the Bush Administration will probably collect the best of the
looted materials as a kind of trophy, but the general concept of
protecting the heritage of the Iraqi people or the evidence of the
beginnings of civilization is completely foreign to those plotting the
end of civilization.
Xymphora
US/UK "Coalition" not doing their job.
"They're supposed to
be here to protect us. They should be protecting us."
Priceless artifacts, hospital
equipment plundered, Reserves of the Iraq Museum are looted, as chaos
reigns in the city of Baghdad after 3 days of looting.
BAGHDAD, April 12 - At the
National Museum of Antiquities, where priceless artifacts had been
wrapped in foam and secured in windowless storage rooms to protect them
against U.S. bombs, an army of looters perpetrated what war did not:
They smashed hundreds of irreplaceable treasures, including Sumerian
clay pots, Assyrian marble carvings, Babylonian statues and a massive
stone tablet with intricate cuneiform writing.
"If there were
five American soldiers at the door, everything would have been fine,"
Amin said about the museum.
Americans, Iraqis Haul Away Spoils of War
Tue Apr 8, 2:26 AM ET
CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar - From palace ashtrays and pillows to jeeps and
a grand piano, the spoils of war are flying fast in Iraq (news - web
sites). Civilians have plundered with little fear of retribution and
some U.S. soldiers have helped themselves to battlefield souvenirs - a
practice that could land them in trouble.
Joke of the Day
A U.S. Central Command spokesman, Navy Ensign David Luckett, said the
command hadn't heard such reports through military channels but
condemned the behavior, which is prohibited under U.S. military law.
"We are making great efforts to preserve the natural resources of
Iraq and any of the belongings of the Iraqi people for the Iraqi
people," Luckett said
Free to do bad things,
says Rumsfeld
Saturday April 12, 2003
War leaders are trying to
damp down bad news coming out of post-invasion Iraq
On one of the bleakest days since the invasion began, US defence
secretary Donald Rumsfeld yesterday shrugged off turmoil and looting in
Iraq as signs of the people's freedom.
"It's untidy, and freedom's untidy," he said, jabbing his hand in the
air. "Free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad
things. They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things."
Mr Rumsfeld insisted that words such as anarchy and lawlessness were
unrepresentative of the situation in Iraq and "absolutely" ill-chosen.
"I picked up a newspaper today and I couldn't believe it," he said. "I
read eight headlines that talked about chaos, violence, unrest. And it
just was Henny Penny - 'The sky is falling'. I've never seen anything
like it! And here is a country that's being liberated, here are people
who are going from being repressed and held under the thumb of a vicious
dictator, and they're free. And all this newspaper could do, with eight
or 10 headlines, they showed a man bleeding, a civilian, who they
claimed we had shot - one thing after another. It's just unbelievable
..."
British Aid Plane Prevented from Entering Iraq:
Violation of International Law
U.S. forces have refused a Save the Children
plane permission to land in northern Iraq to deliver aid, breaching the
Geneva Convention and "costing children their lives."
Food aid reaches Baghdad, but US blocks relief in north, violates Geneva
Convention Articles 55, 56, and 59
20 April 2003
The first emergency shipment of food is due to reach Baghdad today as
the United Nations significantly increases the scale of its aid to Iraq
in an effort to avert an impending humanitarian disaster.
However, as the 100 trucks carrying supplies made their way to the Iraqi
capital, the UN and international aid agencies accused the US military
of deliberately hindering the relief programme by stopping relief
flights from coming into northern Iraq.
Save the Children said it had been trying to land a plane in Arbil in
northern Iraq with medical supplies to treat 40,000 people and emergency
supplies for malnourished children.
The UN has 30 workers stuck in Larnaca, Cyprus, after failing to get
security clearance from US military authorities for their own planned
flight.
Rob MacGillivray, emergency programme manager of Save The Children,
said: "The doctors we are trying to help in Mosul have been struggling
against the odds for weeks to continue saving lives, but now the help we
have promised them is being endlessly delayed."
Veronique Taveua, spokes-woman for the UN Office of the Humanitarain
Coordinator in Iraq, said the delay meant the organisation could not
oversee food, water, health care and de-mining programmes in the region.
She added: "This is slowing down the delivery of humanitarian aid. It's
too long a process to return to an area where direct conflict did not
occur."
Humanitarian agencies warned the situation is critical. The World Health
Organisation said the main hospitals in the northern city of Mosul had
been looted and were operating at about 50 per cent of capacity.
Children held at Camp Xray, US admits
Tuesday, April 22, 2003 The US military has revealed it is
holding juveniles at its high-security prison for terrorists at Guantanamo
Bay in Cuba, known as Camp Xray.
The commander of the joint task force
at Guantanamo, Major General Geoffrey Miller, says more than one child
under the age of 16 is at the detention centre.
TWO KILLED IN NEW IRAQ DEMO SHOOTING
May 1 2003
IT started when a young boy hurled a sandal at a US jeep - it ended with
two Iraqis dead and 16 seriously injured.
I watched in horror as American troops opened fire on a crowd of 1,000
unarmed people here yesterday.
Many, including children, were cut down by a 20-second burst of automatic
gunfire during a demonstration against the killing of 13 protesters at the
Al-Kaahd school on Monday.
FIRST SHOTS: Soldier opens fire on crowd yesterday
Please Bomb Seattle by Geov Parrish
DEAR PRESIDENT BUSH,
I write as a proud American and a resident of one of its many great
cities: Seattle. You've probably heard of us-Space Needle, mountains,
salmon, Microsoft. When you owned the Texas Rangers baseball club, your
team was in the same division as our Mariners. We stunk back then. We hope
you remain grateful. Oh, and Boeing sends its deepest love.
Mr. President, I have an enormous favor to ask of you:
Could you bomb us?
Not just once or twice for show; I mean really bomb the city of Seattle,
hard, like what you're planning for Baghdad and probably for Pyongyang and
Tehran and Damascus and whatever other 50 or 60 major world cities are in
the Pentagon's files. Blast us back to the Stone Age. Make it hurt. Send
us a message.
Don't hesitate or think too much about this-I wouldn't want you getting
migraines or anything. But if you do, consider that we, too, are under the
rule of a power-hungry leader we never voted for, one with unthinkable
numbers of nasty weapons. But that's not all.
Egyptian Government Daily Al-Ahram: The US Is Behind
The Najaf Bombing
August 31, 2003,
"The holy city of Najaf, the site of the tomb of the Imam 'Ali, witnessed
a horrible terrorist crime which claimed the lives of nearly 120 victims -
and at the top of the list was Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir Al-Hakim, head of
the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Nearly 200 more
were wounded. This [happened] when a car bomb, parked near the entrance to
the tomb of the Imam 'Ali, went off as the worshipers were coming out.
"Although those responsible for this tragic event have not yet been
apprehended, [we can say] that this is one of three incidents carried out
in the same way - [the other two being] the bombing of the Jordanian
Embassy in Baghdad and the bombing of the U.N. headquarters in the Iraqi
capital - all carried out by exploding a car bomb. They were all aimed at
parties that irked the occupation forces, such as Jordan, following the
hospitality it gave Saddam's daughters, and the U.N., after a
representative of its secretary-general announced in Iraq that the
American occupation of Iraq humiliates and wounds the Iraqis. And,
finally, [aimed] at Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir Al-Hakim, following the
beginning of resistance operations in the Shiite regions, where the
Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution enjoys obvious influence.
"It is strange that the occupation forces, which are considered to have
the most to gain from the incident, have as usual blamed Islamic
terrorists. This is propaganda aimed at causing world-wide damage to
Muslims...
As Attacks on US Soldiers Continue in Iraq Amy
Goodman Talks to Robert Fisk Just Returned from Fallujah Britain
Independent's chief foreign correspondent discusses the growing
revolt among Iraqis, the so-called road map to peace in the Middle East
and on his meeting with Hamas leader Abdul Aziz Rantissi.
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