Leaked Cable Details Iraqi Women and Children Being Executed in U.S. Raid

Leaked Cable Details Iraqi Women and Children Being Executed in U.S. Raid

By Tyler Yates
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A diplomatic cable recently made public by WikiLeaks provides evidence that U.S. troops executed at least 10 Iraqi civilians, including a woman in her 70s and a 5-month old infant, before calling in an airstrike to destroy the evidence.  This incident took place in 2006 in Iraq’s central city of Ishaqi.

A cell phone photo of the aftermath of what autopsies reveal to be an execution of 11 people including women and children (Photo courtesy of McClatchy).
A cell phone photo of the aftermath of what autopsies reveal to be an execution of 11 people including women and children (Photo courtesy of McClatchy).

The cable contains questions posed by a United Nations (U.N.) investigator about the incident after local Iraqi officials, who were angered by the soldier’s actions, demanded some sort of a remedial response.  The official U.S. response at the time was to deny that anything out of the ordinary had occurred.

In 2006, at the time of the incident, Ishaqi, about 80 miles from Baghdad, and not too far from Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, was considered extremely dangerous.  All roads in the area had been classified as “black,” meaning that there was a high probability they were booby-trapped with bombs.

The original report of the incident put the fault on an intense battle with an Iraqi Al Qaeda suspect that resulted in the complete decimation of the house he was hiding in, and the death of all of its inhabitants.

Townspeople denied this explanation, claiming instead that the soldiers had executed the 11 people living in the house, but military officials said that other accounts of the incident were highly unlikely to be true, and that they didn’t warrant further investigation.

Philip Alston, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, sent the cable to Condoleeza Rice, then Secretary of State, 12 days after the incident took place.  He had a different view of how the events unfolded.  Most disconcerting was his revelation that the autopsies performed on the dead from the incident revealed that they had been handcuffed and shot in the head.  Among the dead were four women and five children, all of which were 5 years old or younger.

Alston’s version of the events is as follows:  The troops approached a house belonging to a local farmer, and were met with gunfire lasting about 25 minutes.  After the firefight ended “troops entered the house, handcuffed all residents and executed all of them.” After the initial ground operation was completed a U.S. air raid occurred that destroyed the house.  “Iraqi TV stations broadcast from the scene and showed bodies of the victims.”

When questioned in an interview on Wednesday after the cable became public knowledge, Alston said that as of 2010 the U.S. officials still hadn’t responded to his requests for more information. He further said that such inaction and lack of response “was the case with most of the letters to the U.S. in the 2006-2007 period” of the Iraq war.

“The tragedy,” he continued, “is that this elaborate system of communications is in place but the (U.N.) Human Rights Council does nothing to follow up when states ignore issues raised with them.”

The newly leaked cable seems to vindicate the townspeople’s claims, and creates a lot of questions for both the military and Washington.  While civilian casualties are sadly a common occurrence during raid operations the killings described in the cable would clearly constitute a war crime.

Not surprisingly, the Pentagon hasn’t responded to any requests for comments on the incident, or the leak.

For more information, please see:

Daily Mirror — WikiLeaks reveals Atrocities by U.S. forces — 1 Sept 2011

Digital Journal — WikiLeaks cable says Iraqi children shot in head during U.S. raid — 1 Sept 2011

Huffington Post — WikiLeaks: U.S. Troops Executed Iraqi Children in 2006 Raid, According to U.N. Sources — 1 Sept 2011

International Business Times — WikiLeaks Cable Release: New Evidence that U.S. Troops May Have Massacred Iraqi Civilians — 1 Sept 2011

McClatchy — WikiLeaks: Iraqi children in U.S. raid shot in head, U.N. says — 31 Aug 2011

Chautauqua Law Dialogs Conclude

By Chad Gustafson

Originally published by the Post-Journal in Jamestown, NY
31 August 2011

MAYVILLE – Prosecutors of international war crimes tribunals are setting their sights on Muammar Gadhafi and other high-ranking members of his party in the fifth annual Chautauqua Declaration.

The declaration was read and signed Tuesday to close the fifth annual International Humanitarian Law Dialogues at Chautauqua Institution.

The declaration, created throughout this summer by eight of the world’s 13 chief prosecutors in international war crimes tribunals, aims to highlight progress that has been made throughout the past year in the arena of international war crime development and it stresses the importance of furthering that development so as to make war torn and corrupt regions of the world ultimately safer places, according to David Crane, who from 2002 until 2005 served as the chief prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

This year the declaration focused on the accomplishments of last year- notably the trials of Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic at the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, “thus signaling to all fugitives from international justice the international community’s commitment to bringing them to account,” the declaration reads. Successes in Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Libya, where Muammar Gadhafi and high ranking members of his party have been issued arrest warrants are also mentioned.

“This is a historical document,” Crane said. “It is the only time ever that you get the signatures of the chief prosecutors in all the world’s international tribunals and courts, and so it’s very important. It captures the sense of the world’s prosecutors about the state of international crime law in one place.”

The signing of the declaration was the culmination of the fifth annual International Humanitarian Law Dialogs, a three day event co-hosted by Chautauqua Institution and the Robert H. Jackson Center, which featured lectures and other seminars from Crane and his colleagues that addressed the ongoings of the court system they are currently working for or previously worked for, among other topics related to international humanitarian law.

Crane added that the venue is fitting given that just miles down the road from Chautauqua Institution, Robert Jackson, chief prosecutor of the Nazi regime after World War Two and often credited as the architect of modern international war crime law, was born and raised.

“We have a unique situation here,” Crane said. “Since Robert Jackson there are only 13 international chief prosecutors in the world and we all like each other, we’re friends, so what a terrible thing it would be if we took advantage of the rare occasion to see each other? … And I think Robert Jackson would have enjoyed this. He was a man of great life and would have loved to sit on the porch of the Athenaeum and look around to see his fellow chief prosecutors and talk about what he was thinking and the things he was concerned about- that’s exactly what we’ve been doing here.”

Moving into the autumn months, Crane said that of all the work currently being done in his field throughout the world, everyone is keeping their eyes on the Middle East.

“We’re concerned about what these dictators and thugs are doing to their people,” Crane said. “But we’re also concerned about these peoples who have been oppressed for so long- them taking revenge. Both ways is a problem so we’re going to see for the next two or three years a very testy and tumultuous Middle East. …It’s the most significant geopolitical event that we’ve had since the fall of the Berlin Wall.”

Fifth Chautauqua Declaration

The Fifth Chautauqua Declaration

Royal Bank of Scotland Cuts Financing to Belarus, Opposes Human Rights Abuses

By Terance Walsh
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

EDINBURGH, Scotland — The Royal Bank of Scotland, one of the United Kingdom’s largest banks, declared that it would cease finance operations in Belarus in protest of Minsk’s continued human rights aberrations.

Royal Bank of Scotland (Photo courtesy of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Royal Bank of Scotland has ceased financing to Belarus because of human rights concerns in the midst of the country's deteriorating economic environment (Photo courtesy of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty).

RBS decided to stop doing business with Belarus after human rights groups Free Belarus Now and the U.K-based Index on Censorship applied pressure to the bank.  The two groups criticized RBS’s dealings with Belarus, leading to a decision by the bank to break with the Belarusian government in favor of opposition to the Belarusian government’s abuses of power.

In an official statement RBS said, “Given sanctions, the deteriorating political situation in Belarus and the fact that it has reneged on key elements of the [International Monetary Fund] programme, RBS has ceased any type of capital-raising for or on behalf of the Belarus Republic, and we have no plans to change that position until these issues have been resolved.  In assessing where we do business, we have a responsibility to consider a number of factors, including social and ethical issues and compliance with the letter and spirit of all international sanctions.”

Head of Advocacy at Index on Censorship Mike Harris expressed excitement at RBS’s decision.  “We’re delighted that RBS has heeded our calls to stop acting as a broker for authoritarian President  Alexander Lukashenko.  This couldn’t come at a more crucial time. The government of Belarus needs nearly $1 billion a month in foreign capital. RBS has sent a clear signal not to risk investing in a regime that violates fundamental human rights and may not last.”

Earlier this year RBS took part in a deal to issue more than $800 million in the Belarusian government’s Eurobonds, a deal essential to Belarus’s financial survival.  RBS was the only British bank doing business with Belarus at that time.  The European Union has already imposed sanctions on Lukashenko and several of his key officials, including a freeze on their assets and a travel ban as well as an arms embargo.

Lukashenko has come under fire from the West, especially after being dubbed “Europe’s last dictator” by George W. Bush’s administration.  Since coming to power about twelve years ago he has styled himself as an authoritative leader and does not shy away from this image.  “An authoritarian style of rule is characteristic of me, and I have always admitted it,” he said in August 2003.

In 1996 he disbanded Parliament, which was seeking to impeach him, and put in place a new hand-picked Parliament.  Recent criticism of his regime has arisen from his crackdown on political opposition after his disputed electoral victory last year.  In a foreboding declaration he warned that opposition protestors would be treated as “terrorists,” promising that he “will wring their necks, as one might a duck.”

Belarus is currently facing an economic and financial crisis, which makes the loss of financing from RBS especially crucial.  Lukashenko ramped up spending prior to December’s elections, which disrupted Belarus’s balance of payments.  The Belarusian ruble has experienced steady deprecation relative to the dollar.  The country is experiencing food shortages due to Russia taking advantage of Belarus’s weak currency by buying Belarusian meat.  The country depends on foreign financing and has already been cut off from financing from the west due to sanctions.  The IMF has refused to assist Belarus until it takes measures against its credit and inflation problems.  As Belarus continues to face a bleak economic forecast and dried-up credit sources, Lukashenko will be forced to comply with foreign pressure to improve their human rights practice if he wishes to attract financing from the West.

For more information please, see:

RIA Novosti — Lukashenko Tries to Rescue the National Currency and Himself — 31 August 2011

BBC — RBS Agrees to End Work for Belarus — 29 August 2011

Financial Times — Belarus: RBS Jumps Ship — 29 August 2011

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty — British Bank Halts Belarus Work After Criticism — 29 August 2011

San Francisco Chronicle — Belarus Runs Out of Meat as Russians Exploit Currency Plunge — 29 August 2011

USA MarketNews — RBS Concurred to Conclude Work for Belarus — 29 August 2011

BBC — Profiler: Alexander Lukashenko — 9 January 2007