Collective Punishment
By Dahr Jamail
17 January, 2005
Dahrjamailiraq.com
Its
not a new tactic here in Iraq. The US military has been doing it for
well over a year now. Last January 3rd, in the Al-Dora rural region
on the outskirts of Baghdad, where beautiful farms of date palms and
orange trees line the banks of the Tigris, I visited a farm where occupation
forces had lobbed several mortars.
The military claimed
they had been attacked by fighters in the area, while the locals denied
any knowledge of harboring resistance fighters.
Standing in a field
full of unexploded mortar rounds a farmer explained, We dont
know why they bomb our house and our fields. We have never resisted
the Americans. There are foreign fighters who have passed through here,
and I think this is who they want. But why are they bombing us?
At that time U.S.
Army Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told reporters that Operation Iron
Grip in this area sends a very clear message to anybody who thinks
that they can run around Baghdad without worrying about the consequences
of firing RPGs, firing mortars. There is a capability in the air
that can quickly respond against anybody who would want to harm Iraqi
citizens or coalition forces."
I counted 9 small
tails of the mortar rounds sticking into the air in this small section
of the field.
I asked if the family
had requested that the Americans come remove the unexploded ordnance.
Mr. Shakr, with
a very troubled look told me, We asked them the first time and
they said OK, well come take care of it. But they
never came. We asked them the second time and they told us they would
not remove them until we gave them a resistance fighter. They told us,
If you wont give us a resistance fighter, we are not coming
to remove the bombs.
He holds his hands
in the air and said, But we dont know any resistance fighters!
Also last winter
I also reported on home demolitions in Samarra by the military. The
consistent pattern then was that anytime an attack occurred against
occupation forces, nearby homes/buildings/fields were then raided or
destroyed by the military, along with complimentary electricity cuts
for the villages and/or cities.
That pattern appears
to remain the same, as I found today in another visit to the al-Dora
region of Baghdad.
Seven weeks ago,
after having suffered many attacks by the Iraqi resistance in the area,
the military began plowing date palm orchards, blasted a gas station
with a tank, cut the electricity which is still down, and blocking roads
in the rural farming area.
As we drove deep
into the rural farming area along a thin, winding road which parallels
the Tigris River, a wolf trots across the road. Rounding a bend I saw
a large swath of date palms which had been bulldozed to the ground.
Large piles of them had been pushed together, doused with fuel, and
burned.
The Americans
were attacked from this field, then they returned and started plowing
down all the trees, explains Kareem, a local mechanic, None
of us knows any fighters and we all know they are coming here from other
areas to attack the Americans, but we are the people who suffer from
this.
Across the way are
other piles of scorched date palms.
Mohammed, a 15 year-old
secondary school student stands near his home explaining what he saw.
There is a grave of an old woman they bulldozed, and then
he points to the nearby road, They destroyed our fences, and now
there are wolves attacking our animals, they destroyed much of our farming
equipment, and the worst is they cut our electricity.
They come
by here every night and fire their weapons to frighten us, he
explains while pointing out an MRE on the ground, left from some soldiers
who used the bulldozers.
But we need
electricity to run our pumps to irrigate our farms, added Mohammed,
And now we are carrying water in buckets from the river instead
and this is very difficult for us. They say they are going to make things
better for us, but they are worse. Saddam was better than this, even
though he executed three of my relatives.
His mother, Um Raed,
cannot stop talking about the electricity.
If there are
bombs why do they attack our homes, she pleads, Why dont
they follow the people who attack them? Why do they come to our family?
All we need now is electricity so we can run our water pumps. I dont
need my house, but we need water. This is our planting season.
Ihsan, a 17 year-old
student, joins the conversation near the bulldozed orchard. I
was beaten by the Americans, he explains, They asked me
who attacked them and I do not know. My home was raided, our furniture
destroyed, and one of my uncles was arrested.
Um Raed is asking
him to talk about the electricity some more, but then adds, Yesterday
at 5:30pm they came here and fired their weapons for 15 minutes randomly
before they left.
I glance at the
ground and see the casing of a 50 caliber bullet while she is speaking,
Nobody attacked them. Why are they doing this? We told them to
come and search but they didnt. They just shot their guns and
left.
She holds her arms
in the air and pleads, Please, please, we must have electricity.
They destroyed two of our pumps and threw them in the river!
A 20 year-old farmer
sees us talking and walks up to us. For almost the last 2 months,
since they plowed these fields, we have had no electricity. How
can I irrigate my fields without pumps, asks Khalid, With
no electricity there is no water. They come here every evening and fire
their weapons, and now my house has no glass in the windows.
I glance over at
Um Raeds home, which has bullet pock marks in the wall.
Every night
they come on their patrols and shoot everywhere, added Khalid.
A 55 year-old blind
farmer approaches us with his cane. He listens to the conversation then
shares his experiences. The problem now is no gas for our machines,
then they shot our gas station with a tank, he says while his
eyes look over my shoulder, These trees are hundreds of years
old and they cut them. Why?
They destroyed
so many of our fences, he adds, And now we have wolves attacking
our animals. We are living on the food ration now, that is all. We only
need to stop this hurting.
While others listening
are nodding, he continues on, Every night I hear them come and
shoot. During the beginning, when they searched our houses they didnt
steal. Now they steal from us. They didnt hurt us at the beginning,
but now they are hurting us so much!
We walk a little
ways down the road and Ahmed, a 38 year-old farmer talks with us. Hed
been detained during a home raid on August 13th, 2003.
I dont
know why I was arrested, he explained of his journey through the
military detention system for 10 months, which found him experiencing
treatment like having mock executions, being bound and having his head
covered for days on end, and being held at a camp near Basra in the
scorching summer temperatures.
At that camp
they hung a sign where we stated that said, The Zoo, he explained.
He claims that his home and fields were searched and no weapons were
found. His ten month detention included witnessing sexual humiliation
of prisoners, and regular beatings.
I watched
black American soldiers put naked Iraqi women in a cell and then enter
the cell, he explains, I heard the screams as they soldiers
raped the women.
Sheikh Hamed, a
well dressed middle aged man approaches and suggests we move off the
road in case a patrol comes through and begins shooting again.
After moving off
the road he says, These are our grandfathers orchards. Neither
the British nor Saddam behaved like this. This is our history. When
they cut a tree it is like they are killing one of our family.
He says three of
his cousins were executed by Saddam Husseins regime before adding,
We dont want this freedom of the Americans. They are raiding
our homes and terrorizing us at anytime. We are living in terror. They
shoot and bomb here everyday. We have sent our families to live elsewhere.
We are told the
road is blocked, so we drive a little further along the Tigris to see
four large concrete blocks rising out of a deep hole blasted in the
road.
One of the men with
us tells us that at the same time the date palm orchards were destroyed
the road was blocked by first the military blasting it, then placing
smaller concrete barriers.
People grew weary
of walking to their homes from the roadblock, so farm tractors were
used to pull the blocks and reopen the road. Yesterday the military
brought larger barriers and the road is sealed yet again.
An 80 year old man
carrying several bags of food gingerly makes his way through the barrier
then shuffles on down the road towards his home.
Hamoud Abid, a 50
year-old cheery farmer meets us just past the roadblock and I ask him
what the soldiers told him about the roadblock.
They humiliate
us when we talk to them, he says, They would not tell us
when they will remove these blocks, so we are all walking now.
He says the soldiers
used to come ask him to search his fields and he would allow it, and
give them oranges while they searched. They searched them 10 times
and never found anything, of course, he explains, But they
came last time more recently and caused destruction to my wall. They
were starting to knock over my trees when a tread fell off their bulldozer,
so they left.
But just before
leaving, they destroyed his front gate and left a block of concrete
as a calling card.
We begin to leave
and Hamoud, despite this horrendous situation cheerily says, You
should stay. I will grill fish, and you can stay the night in my home.
We decline and he
insists we at least stay for lunch or chai, but we must be going.
As we drive back
out the small, winding road two patrols of three Humvees each rumble
past us headed towards where wed just come from. Just after that
two helicopters rumble low overhead towards the same area.
I just phoned the
military press office in Baghdad and asked them if they can provide
me information on why they are blocking roads, firing weapons, plowing
down date palm groves, and cutting electricity in the Al-Arab Jubour
Village in Al-Dora, as several of the residents there claim.
The spokesman, who
wont give me his name, said he knew nothing about such things,
but that there were ongoing security operations in the Al-Dora area.
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