AARDIG
04-05-06, 16:50
“They drowned my friend”- Latest of UK scandals in Iraq
Speaking to a court martial in Colchester, Essex, Aiad Salim Hanon, 25, a welder and self-confessed fellow thief from Basra, said that he and a group of looters were stopped by British occupying troops in May 2003, punched repeatedly, beaten and kicked before being forced into a canal.
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/pics/11252.jpg
Kareem struggled for 2 minutes in the strong tide of the canal, while soldiers threw bricks at him
"We were very hungry,"
"It was wrong but we had no other option."
"First when he (soldier) caught me, he hit me on the eye and then he hit me on the arm," Hanon told the seven-strong military panel through an interpreter, after swearing an oath of allegiance on the Qur’an.
Hanon, who admitted that he stole to feed his family, said of the Guardsmen:
“They made us get off the vehicle and untied our hands. All had guns. They told us, ‘Come on, swim’, and they cocked their weapons and pointed to the river. We went in. We had no other choice. We went to swim.”
Hanon, who cannot read or write, described to the court martial in Colchester the last desperate moments in the life of his 15-year-old friend Ahmed Jabber Kareem, an asthmatic who could not swim.
Hanon, among three other Iraqis who were trying to steal from a garage before they were caught by British troops, described the death of Kareem, saying he vanished under the water without making a sound, holding up his arms above his head in a final gesture, after struggling for about two minutes in the strong tide of the Shatt Al-Basra canal, while soldiers threw bricks at him and two other looters, who managed to escape death.
“He was shorter than me. Once we were in the water, he just raised his hands and was under water, and then raised them again above his head. Then he vanished,” Hanon, who was giving evidence at the court martial of the soldiers, all accused of manslaughter, said to questions of the prosecution counsel.
“Before we were near to the water they (the soldiers) kept on throwing bricks at us, so we went farther and there was mud beneath our feet. After the mud we had to get into the water.”
Asked by Orlando Pownall, QC, for the prosecution, what he thought would have happened if they had refused, he said:
“I don’t know, I think they might have killed us.
Hanon said that one of the soldiers had tried to help Kareem but was pulled back by his colleagues.
"One of the soldiers took off his clothes, he wanted to jump into the water, but the others did not let him," he told the panel.
"I saw him with my own eyes taking off his clothes. I saw him wanting to jump but the others stopped him and pushed him towards the armored vehicle."
The four Guardsmen, Color Sergeant Carle Selman, 39, of the Coldstream Guards but attached to the Scots Guards, and three men of the Irish Guards: Lance Corporal James Cooke, 22, Guardsman Joseph McCleary, 24, and Guardsman Martin McGing, 22, all deny the manslaughter of Ahmed.
Hanon, accompanied by Kareem’s uncle, reported the incident to the British authorities two days later, saying he was told "I would get compensation for the injuries and for the beating."
The trial continues.
Source (http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=11252)
Speaking to a court martial in Colchester, Essex, Aiad Salim Hanon, 25, a welder and self-confessed fellow thief from Basra, said that he and a group of looters were stopped by British occupying troops in May 2003, punched repeatedly, beaten and kicked before being forced into a canal.
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/pics/11252.jpg
Kareem struggled for 2 minutes in the strong tide of the canal, while soldiers threw bricks at him
"We were very hungry,"
"It was wrong but we had no other option."
"First when he (soldier) caught me, he hit me on the eye and then he hit me on the arm," Hanon told the seven-strong military panel through an interpreter, after swearing an oath of allegiance on the Qur’an.
Hanon, who admitted that he stole to feed his family, said of the Guardsmen:
“They made us get off the vehicle and untied our hands. All had guns. They told us, ‘Come on, swim’, and they cocked their weapons and pointed to the river. We went in. We had no other choice. We went to swim.”
Hanon, who cannot read or write, described to the court martial in Colchester the last desperate moments in the life of his 15-year-old friend Ahmed Jabber Kareem, an asthmatic who could not swim.
Hanon, among three other Iraqis who were trying to steal from a garage before they were caught by British troops, described the death of Kareem, saying he vanished under the water without making a sound, holding up his arms above his head in a final gesture, after struggling for about two minutes in the strong tide of the Shatt Al-Basra canal, while soldiers threw bricks at him and two other looters, who managed to escape death.
“He was shorter than me. Once we were in the water, he just raised his hands and was under water, and then raised them again above his head. Then he vanished,” Hanon, who was giving evidence at the court martial of the soldiers, all accused of manslaughter, said to questions of the prosecution counsel.
“Before we were near to the water they (the soldiers) kept on throwing bricks at us, so we went farther and there was mud beneath our feet. After the mud we had to get into the water.”
Asked by Orlando Pownall, QC, for the prosecution, what he thought would have happened if they had refused, he said:
“I don’t know, I think they might have killed us.
Hanon said that one of the soldiers had tried to help Kareem but was pulled back by his colleagues.
"One of the soldiers took off his clothes, he wanted to jump into the water, but the others did not let him," he told the panel.
"I saw him with my own eyes taking off his clothes. I saw him wanting to jump but the others stopped him and pushed him towards the armored vehicle."
The four Guardsmen, Color Sergeant Carle Selman, 39, of the Coldstream Guards but attached to the Scots Guards, and three men of the Irish Guards: Lance Corporal James Cooke, 22, Guardsman Joseph McCleary, 24, and Guardsman Martin McGing, 22, all deny the manslaughter of Ahmed.
Hanon, accompanied by Kareem’s uncle, reported the incident to the British authorities two days later, saying he was told "I would get compensation for the injuries and for the beating."
The trial continues.
Source (http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=11252)