MILITARY RELEASES FIRST DOCUMENTS ON CIVILIAN CASUALTIES
Following the ACLU’s release of nearly five hundred cases of civilian harm caused by US forces, Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC) said for the first time the American public has a snapshot of what happens after bombs and bullets harm Iraqi and Afghan civilians.
Want to know more? [read more of what CIVIC is saying]
Marla Ruzicka
Civilian Claims on U.S. Suggest the Toll of War
On March 11, 2004, Miad Matar got $2,000 from Sgt. Guadalupe Sorola after her husband was killed by American forces at a checkpoint in Iraq.
In February 2006, nervous American soldiers in Tikrit killed an Iraqi fisherman on the Tigris River after he leaned over to switch off his engine. A year earlier, a civilian filling his car and an Iraqi Army officer directing traffic were shot by American soldiers in a passing convoy in Balad, for no apparent reason.
The incidents are among many thousands of claims submitted to the Army by Iraqi and Afghan civilians seeking payment for noncombat killings, injuries or property damage American forces inflicted on them or their relatives.
The claims provide a rare window into the daily chaos and violence faced by civilians and troops in the two war zones. Recently, the Army disclosed roughly 500 claims to the American Civil Liberties Union in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. They are the first to be made public.
Civilian Deaths –
The Human Cost of War
Press Release: ACLU Releases Files on Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq
Americans Have a Right to Unfiltered Information About the Human Costs of War, ACLU Says
Claims Filed Under the Foreign Claims Act by Civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq
(Released by the ACLU on 4/12/07)
They represent only a small fraction of the claims filed.
Glimpses of Marla, Founder of CIVIC Worldwide, RIP Marla!
5 plus minute google video
