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A military officer states that the men are
thieves, and that this technique will be used
again.
No word yet from the newly liberated Iraqi
people about some of them being summarily found
guilty of theft, forced at gunpoint to strip,
having a racist phrase written on their bodies,
and then made to walk naked in public. No doubt
the Arab/Muslim world is impressed by this display
of "democracy," "freedom,"
"due process," and "no cruel or
unusual punishment."
We wonder if the soldiers will be using this
technique on their comrades who stole $13.1
million in Iraq. Or the journalists who looted
Iraq's art.
All photos by Tomm W. Christiansen
The Daily Mirror (London):
SHAME OF U.S. TROOPS' IRAQI STREET JUSTICE: Apr
28 2003
Suspects stripped and paraded at gunpoint From
Chris Hughes In Baghdad
STRIPPED at gunpoint and publicly branded as
thieves a gang of suspected Iraqi looters are
humiliated by US troopers' street justice.
After being hauled before a kangaroo court, the
men had the words Ali Baba Haram - Arabic for
"dirty thief, he stole" - scrawled on
their chests with a marker pen.
They were then paraded in front of a jeering
Baghdad crowd before fleeing to safety.
The "appalling" affront to dignity
outraged human rights organisations who say it
broke the Geneva Convention which protects
prisoners against "insults or public
curiosity".
It fuelled Iraqi resentment at the US
"occupation" of their country, provoked
dozens of demonstrations and flew in the face of
guidelines aimed at winning over the locals.
But the trooper allegedly responsible was
defiant. First Lieutenant Eric Canaday of Delta
Squadron's 10th Engineer Corps said: "I don't
think this kind of action is excessive.
"We've done it once before to another man
we found looting and it worked perfectly."
Raw justice was handed down when the US
soldiers arrested four men in Baghdad's Zawra
Amusement Park on suspicion of looting.
After questioning and searching the suspects -
and with the prison system in chaos - the troopers
were at a loss to know where to take them.
So they made their own brutal law. Lieutenant
Canaday allegedly asked a group of watching Iraqis
how the men should be punished.
Troops said they were told the best way would
be to brand them as thieves and strip them.
The fearful suspects were shoved at gunpoint
into a tent where they were stripped.
With the help of a Muslim soldier in the unit
they were then daubed with insults and forced into
the street to brave a crowd screaming "Ali
Baba!" One of the men, Zian Djumma, 20, said
later: "It was horrendous.
"Now I want to find a hand grenade and
throw it at the soldiers. I hate them for
this."
He said he and his friends had entered the
park, used by Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard
for weapons storage, to search for one of their
young brothers.
Troops said the men were carrying a bag with
spare parts for weapons.
Coming on top of an explosion at a US arms dump
in the city which killed up to 40 Iraqis and
seriously injured 60, the degrading scenes brought
an explosion of fury.
Demonstrating outside the city's Palestine
Hotel Adil Al-Harni, 41, said last night:
"This is a disgusting way to treat people
without trying them. How do we know these men were
thieves?
"Even if they were, this is no way to
treat them. If this is US democracy, they can keep
it.
"It's just another way of keeping people
in their place. I believe it will cause big
trouble."
Amnesty International said: "It was an
appalling way to treat prisoners. Such degrading
treatment is a clear violation of US
responsibilities.
"The US authorities must investigate this
incident and publicly release the findings."
The Red Cross added: "The Americans have a
responsibility to give good treatment to all
prisoners, whoever they are."
US Central Command has pledged a probe.
At the heart of the row is a cultural split
over looting. The Americans see it as a breakdown
of order. Locals say they are only taking a share
of what Saddam stole from them.
Baghdad markets now sell goods at four prices -
for locals, for foreigners, for those who want to
pay less for looted goods and for ultra-religious
Muslims who condemn looting and will not buy
stolen goods.
Ask a stallholder how much he wants for a pair
of trousers, and he will reply: "Looted, sir,
or unlooted?" Army trousers, robbed from
government stores cost just $2. Unlooted cost $10.
But no one in Baghdad can guarantee they have
not benefited from looting since no one is sure
where goods come from.
When a religious leader re-opened a mosque in
Baghdad's lawless Saddam City, he told a
400-strong crowd: "You can come in if you are
unarmed and can swear on the Koran that you are
not looters, former looters or have not benefited
from looting."
Refusing to lie, the devout Muslims returned
home.
The "Ali Baba" row is the latest in a
string of embarrassing incidents for the US
military in which troops have flouted guidelines
on how to win Iraqis' "hearts and
minds".
US troops have raised the Stars and Stripes at
captured sites on several occasions, most
notoriously on a statue of Saddam during the last
push into Baghdad.
But allied forces were specifically ordered
against such displays as it was believed the
population would feel humiliated by the sight of a
foreign flag flying in their homeland.
Original URL for article
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE News Flash
AI Index: MDE 14/097/2003 (Public) News Service
No: 103 25 April 2003
Iraq: Stripped naked and humiliated by US
soldiers
Amnesty International expressed concern today
at the disturbing article and images portrayed in
the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet which show
American soldiers escorting naked Iraqi men
through a park in Baghdad. The pictures reveal
that someone has written the words 'Ali Baba -
Haram(i)' (which means Ali Baba - thief) in Arabic
on the prisoners' chests.
The article quotes a US military officer as
saying that this treatment is an effective method
of deterring thieves from entering the park and is
a method which will be used again; another US
military officer is quoted as saying that US
soldiers are not allowed to treat prisoners
inhumanely.
"If these pictures are accurate, this is
an appalling way to treat prisoners. Such
degrading treatment is a clear violation of the
responsibilities of the occupying powers,"
Amnesty International said today.
"Whatever the reason for their detention,
these men must at all times be treated humanely.
The US authorities must investigate this incident
and publicly release their findings."
Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention
clearly states that "Protected persons are
entitled in all circumstances, to respect for
their persons, their honour, their family rights,
their religious convictions and practices, and
their manner and customs. They shall at all times
be humanely treated, and shall be protected
especially against all acts of violence or threats
thereof and against insults and public
curiosity".
To link to the article from Dagbladet please go
to:
http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2003/04/25/367175.html
For a full copy of Amnesty International's
report: Iraq: Responsibilities of the occupying
powers please go
to:http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engmde140892003
Public Document
****************************************
For more information please call Amnesty
International's press office in London, UK, on +44
20 7413 5566 Amnesty International, 1 Easton St.,
London WC1X 0DW. web: http://www.amnesty.org
Suspected Iraqi Thieves Stripped by US
Soldiers: Journalists
Agence France-Presse Fri Apr 25, 7:17 PM ET
BAGHDAD (AFP) - US soldiers stripped four
suspected Iraqi thieves naked and burned their
clothes before pushing them into the street,
journalists from a Norwegian newspaper who
witnessed the incident told AFP.
The soldiers also wrote "Ali Baba.
Haram" in Arabic across the Iraqis' chests in
a crude reference to the tale of "Ali Baba
and the 40 Thieves," said Line Fransson from
the Oslo-based Dagbladet daily.
The phrase translates roughly as slang for
"sinful thieves."
"We suddenly saw four naked Iraqi guys
with four American soldiers," said Fransson,
on her way with a photographer in the early
morning to do a story about the suffering of
animals at Baghdad's zoo in Zawra park amid the
war.
"We thought they were going to the
bathroom. They went into a building and a minute
later (the soldiers) pushed them out into the main
street," she said.
"Then the naked guys ran as fast as they
could" to a friend who was waiting in a
nearby car, she said. Photographs taken by the
newspaper and shown to AFP appear to confirm the
incident.
One of the Iraqis, who gave his name as Ziad
and said he was 20, spoke to the reporters once he
managed to find a pair of shorts. He claimed he
and his friends were in the park to search for his
missing younger brother.
The commanding army officer at the scene, First
Lieutenant Eric Canaday, confirmed his men had
stripped the Iraqis. He said he had been having
trouble with young Iraqi men trying to steal light
weapons being stored in the park.
He claimed he got the idea to strip them from
people in the neighborhood.
"They gave us the idea so we took their
clothes and burned them and then we pushed them
out with thief written on them," Canaday was
quoted as telling the journalists. He confirmed
their clothes had been set on fire with gasoline.
"It has actually been pretty
successful," he said, claiming that as many
as 100 people had been trying to steal the
weapons, including Kalashnikov rifles, which are
being stored to eventually re-arm Iraq's security
services.
"It's not as bad as it seems," a
laughing Canaday was quoted as saying, "we
only do it to the people who are stealing
weapons."
"A little public shaming; no physical
damage and everything will be fine tomorrow,"
he said. "Hopefully they will be embarrassed
enough not to come back."
Canaday said his soldiers, who wrote on the
Iraqis with a black marker, had "done this
one time before" but that time "we only
did it with one person."
He said he intended to continue the policy.
Fransson said that when the US soldiers pushed
the Iraqis into the street they were shouting
after them: "Ali Baba, Ali Baba."
"Ziad said he was so angry being
humiliated by the soldiers that the only thing he
wanted to do was find a grenade and throw it at
the American soldiers and all the other ones in
the city," she said.
The chief of US army public affairs, Colonel
Rick Thomas, said it "certainly does not
sound like the type of incident we have seen
during this operation," but declined further
comment. He could not say if an investigation
would be opened.
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