Fresh Graves
Of Falluja
By Dahr Jamail
08 May, 2004
The
New Standard
An
older Iraqi man is wailing near the grave of a loved one in the dusty
heat of a football stadium converted into a cemetary. Between wails
he raises his fist and yells, Allahu akbar! (God is great).
We wait outside
until he slowly exits the new cemetery with his brothers holding him.
Rows and rows of
fresh graves (click
to see the
pictures) fill the football stadium in Falluja. Many of them
are smaller than others. My translator Nermim reads the gravestones
to me: This one is a little girl. We take another step.
And this one is her sister. Next to them is their mother.
We walk slowly under
the scorching sun along dusty rows of humble headstones. She continues
reading them aloud to me: Old man wearing jacket with black dishdasha,
near industrial center. He has a key in his hand. Many of the
bodies were buried before they could be identified. Tears are welling
up in my eyes as she quietly reads: Man wearing red track suit.
She points to another row, Three women killed in car leaving city
by American missile.
One of the football
stadiums in Falluja has become a Martyr Cemetery due to the hundreds
of deaths caused by the fighting throughout April. U.S. marines eventually
surrounded the main cemetery, so the residents of Falluja had to bury
their dead here. Iraqi doctors estimate that over half of the dead Iraqis
are women, children and elderly, and the graves I view seem to confirm
this. There are nearly 500 graves here today, and counting...
As we walk back
to the car the loudspeaker of a nearby mosque is blaring the words of
an Imam: We have two reasons to be happy this month. One is the
birthday of our prophet. The second is our victory over the Americans!
I weep at the cost.
Over at another
mosque a little earlier, under the constant buzzing of unmanned military
surveillance drones, the mood was more defiant. The rumor is going around
that the Marines will resume patrolling the streets of Falluja this
coming Monday, along with Iraqi Police (IP) and the Iraqi Civil Defense
Corps (ICDC). Yet this rumor is being widely circulated by both the
IP and ICDC.
Abdul Muhammed tells
me, When the Americans start patrolling on Monday, even more people
will fight them this time because so many people need revenge now.
Another man angrily
states, They try to cover their failure by these patrols. We will
fight them again! He continues sternly, We dont want
them in our city! Nobody in Falluja wants to see them in our streets!
Everyone who lost family to them will avenge them!
This discussion
takes place standing in the rubble beneath a minaret that has been blasted
by either a missile or tank -- a gaping hole just below the top. After
climbing up the spiral stairs as high as possible, two men join me to
look out over the city that resembles more of a ghost town. There is
so much more destruction than the last time I was here a few weeks ago.
One of the men,
who speaks English, says, I saw American snipers shoot a woman
on her roof while she was hanging her clothes. This was during their
cease fire.
I hear more horrible
stories of snipers killing civilians today than I can keep track of.
After carefully making my way back down the rubble covered steps, we
drive to the Julan area of Falluja, which was very heavily bombed during
the fighting in April.
The tight streets
and numerous alleys of Julan are mostly empty after we pass through
two mujahedeen checkpoints. So many homes are bombed, others riddled
with bullets. Date palms are torn down and the stench of rotting bodies
hangs in the air.
There is a huge
crater, at least 8 feet deep and three times that at its diameter, just
in front of a small mosque. The hole is partially filled with water
from a leaking pipe below. People sit inside the mosque listening to
their Imam. As I take photos several men gather around.
One of them states,
I hope the Americans come back on Monday. They killed my cousin
and burned my house. God gave us the victory, and He will give us another
when they come back!
Another man points
to the mosque and says, Marines entered this mosque before they
bombed it and slit the throats of refugees. This is their democracy?
This is their freedom?
One of the other
stories going around Falluja is that of Marines using mosque minarets
to shoot at people. Every group of people I speak with at each location
is stating this. True or not, it is what people here believe. The damage
is done. These beliefs, cemented by the recent photos coming out of
Abu Ghraib, have melded distrust and hatred into a long sword which
is now held against the occupiers.
Driving a little
further into Julan we pass a scorched ambulance on the side of the road.
At yet another mosque I am shown a copy of the Holy Koran which has
two bullet holes through it. Another man, walking from a minaret that
has been completely demolished, shows me casings from a tank shell.
Aziz Hussein, who
was in Falluja for much of the fighting, tells me of the horrible bombings
by U.S. war planes, but that all of Falluja was together in supporting
the mujahedeen. He says, When someone lost one of their family
or their home, they didnt blame the mujahedeen. Most of the people
killed by bombings were civilians. Americans said the civilians were
killed by mujahedeen, but this is just not true.
He too tells the
story of Marines shooting people from minarets, When we tried
to go to our mosque, the snipers shot at us.
I hear more horrendous
stories: Marines occupying peoples homes and looting them of money
and gold, leaving feces in their foodstuffs, butchering their cows,
chickens and dogs.
Later as we prepare
to leave, a man tells me, The mujahedeen will shoot the Americans
as soon as they start their patrols here. Falluja is our city, not the
Americans!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dahr Jamail is Baghdad
correspondent for The NewStandard. He is an Alaskan devoted to covering
the untold stories from occupied Iraq. You can help Dahr continue his
crucial work in Iraq by making donations. For more information or to
donate to Dahr, visit The NewStandard.
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