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Reports From Iraq > Thur., Apr. 1, 2004
The Grisly Deaths of Thousands of Iraqis
US troops in tanks and hum-vees patrol Baghdad's streets
day and night. But they don't seem to be making the city
any safer for regular Iraqis. |
by Aaron Glantz
BAGHDAD, IRAQ -- American officials have been quick to condemn
yesterday's killing of three American contractors in Fallugah.
The charred remains of the contractors, retired military men
working for North Carolina's Blackwater Security Consulting
were pulled from the wreckage of their burning car by jubilant
Iraqis who beat them with sticks before dragging them through
town.
American Administrator L. Paul Bremer, condemned the killings,
as well as the combat deaths of five American soldiers on
the same day, and said ``their deaths would not go unpunished.''
``Yesterday's events in Fallujah are dramatic examples of
the ongoing struggle between human dignity and barbarism,''
he said at a graduation ceremony for Iraqi police cadets.
``The acts we have seen were despicable and inexcusable. ...
They violate the tenets of all religions, including Islam,
as one of the foundations of civilized society.''
But while the American Army works hard to protect itself
and its contractors, it doesn't appear to be working half
as hard to keep regular Iraqis safe from death.
Walk into any Baghdad hospital at any time -- day or night
-- and you're likely to find a half dozen people like Ma'an
Desere. The white haired Sunni Arab wears a whispy beard and
a checkered black-and-white kefeyah. He stands over his son
-- who's hooked up to an oxygen tank -- his chest full of
bullet holes.
He was hit by somebody, the old man says, "I don't know
who."
"If he's a man he should come and face me and I will
drink him up!" the old man screams motioning as if firing
a machine gun. "Only a woman would hit you and run away.
Cowards! They stopped the car. They hit my son and left."
Every day, more than 20 victims of violence find their way
to Baghdad's City morgue -- over 5,000 deaths since the occupation
began -- more than double the tally under the Saddam regime.
The head of the gun-shot ward at this hospital, Yarmuk, estimates
he treats 80 victims a day. He says most of the deaths come
during armed robberies.
"All the funerals I've attended are death by killing,"
relates Sheik Ma'an Hassan al-Janabi, imam of the area's Allah
Akbar mosque. "Random killing made by people -- nobody
knows way. They just kill and run away. We don't know who
did it or the place or the idea of the killers."
American tanks and hum-vees patrol most of Baghdad's streets
day and night, but Sheil Ma'an Hassan al-Janabi doesn't think
they do anything to increase security. He says they only increase
resentment and anger amongst regular Iraqis.
"One time I was crossing the street in my car and there
was a hummer or a tank passing through," he says. "And
there is a female soldier sitting on top of it crossed leg
with one foot over the other so that she is pointing her boot
in my face. And she will do this even if I am a sheik or a
doctor of the head of a University."
Back in Yarmuk Hospital a group of resident nurses chat in
a hall-way. 22 year old Taleibet Tamrir explains the topic
of conversation.
"A neighbor of our's was kidnapped," she tells
Pacifica. "Her car was stopped and the kidnappers got
in the car. She is an old woman who wears the veil."
Kidnappings have become common in Iraq since the fall of
Saddam Hussein. With unemployment high and law enforcement
weak, ransom is seen as an easy way to make money.
The same day "there was a woman who was walking to the
bank," Tamrir says. "She was walking home at around
six in the evening. She screamed and the Taleibet Tamrir says
she doesn't go out anymore. Her father drives her to work
in the morning and home in the afternoon.
In the gun-shot ward, Ma'an Desere stands over the body of
his dying son and says he has this message for the Americans.
"There is God," he says pointing his finger at
the sky. "We're standing with God. No one can face him.
Not Bush. Not America. God is stronger than all of them."
There is God, he says. We're standing with God. No one can
face him. Not Bush. Not America. God is stronger than all
of them.
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