A media firestorm was triggered by an Italian documentary exposing the American forces use of (a/k/a “WP” an incendiary substance that burns on contact with air and human flesh) as a weapon against civillians in the attack on Fallujah. Subsequently, US officials issued denials of these charges claiming WP had been used only to create smoke to screen troops from insurgent fighters, What followed shortly thereafter (upon discovery that US military sources had previously admitted use of WP munitions in the Fallujah assault) were various admissions by US officials that WP was, in fact, part of the its military’s arsenal in Iraq, while still denying their use against civillians.
Now the current Iraqi Government has decided to initiate its own investigation into the claims that it was used against civilians in Fallujah:
Iraq’s acting Human Rights minister, Narmin Othman, said last night that a team would be dispatched to Fallujah to try to ascertain conclusively whether civilians had been killed or injured by the incendiary weapon. The use of white phosphorus (WP) and other incendiary weapons such as napalm against civilians is prohibited.
The move by the Iraqi government . . . follows the Pentagon’s confirmation to The Independent earlier this week that WP had been used during the battle of Fallujah last November and the presentation of persuasive evidence that civilians had been among the victims. . . .
The battle of Fallujah, an insurgent stronghold, took place over two weeks last November. It led to the displacement of 300,000 people. Reports from refugee camps and from an Iraqi doctor who stayed in the city during the fighting suggest numerous civilians suffered burns and “melting skin.” Photographs show rows of bodies charred almost beyond recognition.
Not surprisngly, in the wake if the Iraqi Ministry torture revelations, Sunnis may desire an independent investigation — independent of the Shia dominated Iraqi government, that is. They’ve already demanded an investigation into the torture scandal that’s independent from the one being pursued by Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari:
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — A prominent Sunni party has called for an international investigation into the discovery of an Iraqi Interior Ministry compound allegedly holding more than 160 detainees — some with clear signs of torture.
The Iraqi Islamic Party, which helped broker the deal that brought a constitution to a national referendum in October, said Wednesday the detainees were mostly Sunnis and the human rights violations at the compound were part of a campaign to marginalize Sunnis ahead of next month’s election.
“The Islamic Party appeals to the U.N., Islamic Conference Organization, Arab League and human rights organizations all over the world to condemn the flagrant violations of human rights under the current government and demand them to launch an international investigation so that those involved would get just punishment,” the party said in a statement.
And I can see them being concerned about the Iraqi government’s new investigation into the US military’s use of white phosphorus weapons, in light of this statement from the US commander regarding both the WP controversy and Jaafari’s torture investigation:
US Major General Rick Lynch has reiterated Pentagon assertions that white phosphorus had not been used on innocent Iraqi civilians.
He said they had been used to mark targets, by lighting up the night sky.
Speaking at a press conference in Baghdad, Lynch added that the United States fully supported Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari in his investigation into allegations of abuse at a detention centre in Baghdad’s Jadriyah district.
Just to be clear, the allegations of torture and abuse of Sunnis by the Iraqi government also includes allegations that this abuse was carried out by Iraqi police and/or paramilitary groups with the support, financial or operational, of the United States and Britain.
Ftom The Observer:
Hanging by the arms in cuffs, scorching of the body with something like an iron and knee-capping are claimed to be increasingly prevalent in the new Iraq. Now evidence is emerging that appears to substantiate those claims. Not only Iraqis make the allegations. International officials describe the methods in disgusted but hushed tones, laying them at the door of the increasingly unaccountable forces attached to Iraq’s Ministry of the Interior. . . .
British and US police and military officials act as advisers to Iraq’s security forces. Foreign troops support Iraqi policing missions. What is extraordinary is that despite the increasingly widespread evidence of torture, governments have remained silent.
and this from Newsday
Secret death squads feared among Iraq’s commandos
By James Rupert
The commandos are part of the Iraqi security forces that the Bush administration says will gradually replace American troops in this war. But the commandos are being blamed for a wave of kidnappings and executions around Baghdad since the spring.
One such group, the Volcano Brigade, is operating as a death squad — under the influence or control of Iraq’s most potent Shiite factional militia, the Iranian-backed Badr Organization, said several Iraqi government officials and western Baghdad residents. . . .
In the past year, the U.S. military has helped build up the commandos under guidance from James Steele, a former Army Special Forces officer who led U.S. counterinsurgency efforts in El Salvador in the 1980s. Salvadoran army units trained by Steele’s team were accused of a pattern of atrocities.
The first commando units — the Lion Brigade, Scorpion Brigade and others — were formed last year under a Sunni interior minister, Falah Naqib, and include many Sunnis who worked in the repressive security organs of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party. The Volcano Brigade was built up under the current, Shiite-led government and “is mostly made of (Shiite) men from the Badr militia,” said a Shiite source close to the unit. Like most of a dozen people interviewed about the commandos, he asked not to be named for fear of being killed.
I’m not saying that there may be a tit-for-tat arrangement here, where the Iraq government white washes its report on our military’s use of white phosphorus against Sunni civilians in Fallujah in exchange for the United States accepting whatever conclusions Jaafari’s government comes to regarding the practice of torture by the Ministry of the Interior. I’m not saying that, but the possibility must no doubt have already arisen among Iraqi Sunnis.
Maybe this is why some in the UK are calling for an independent investigation of the white phosphorus claims by the United Nations:
Peter Carter QC, an expert in international law and chairman of the Bar’s human rights committee, said the latest US admissions raised serious concerns about whether white phosphorus was indiscriminately used against civilians. He called for an independent inquiry, possibly through the United Nations, into the use of white phosphorus in Iraq.
