lennart
15-06-03, 13:56
Iraqi Shepherd Sues Rumsfeld, Franks
Agence France Presse
RAMADI, Iraq, 14 June 2003 — An Iraqi shepherd is seeking $200 million in damages from the US military for the deaths of 17 members of his family as well as 200 sheep in a missile strike, in the first such suit filed through the courts of the US-led occupation administration. The first hearing will take place on July 20 at the tribunal of Ramadi, 100 kilometers west of Baghdad.
“The trial will be Iraq’s first against US troops because we believe they used excessive force against the Iraqi people who cooperated with the United States to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime,” Abud Sarhan’s lawyer told AFP. Lawyer Rabah Al-Alwani was approached by Sarhan, 71, to file a suit against US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of US forces in Iraq, after the shepherd claimed a US missile landed on his tent on April 4.
Days before, Sarhan had left his home village of Al-Altash, near an Iraqi military base that was heavily bombed by coalition warplanes. He had set up a tent in the nearby desert to host 20 of his family members and relatives in three distinct sections, one for women, one for men and the other for children, said his half-brother Hamad Sarhan, 25, who was wounded in the attack.
“We thought we would be safe there. There were no military positions, only shepherds and their flocks. Before the night prayer, a missile landed next to us, shortly afterward another one fell right into the women’s section. It was horrible. We could not make out whose limbs were scattered on the ground,” he said.
All his family members died, except for him and his half-brother as the two had stepped outside the tent to perform their ablutions in preparation for the evening prayer. He said 200 of their 700 sheep also died in what he said was a coalition raid.
Missile debris, children’s clothes and sheep carcasses were still littering the ground two months later, an AFP correspondent at the scene reported.
The shepherd could not be interrogated as he had taken his 300 cows to graze up north, in the lush fields of Makhmur. “We went to Ramadi’s tribunal to file a suit and it was deemed receivable because we produced all the requested documents,” said Alwani.
The tribunal then informed the coalition through Iraq’s Justice Ministry where one of the coalition advisers is providing technical assistance, he added. His colleague Aref Al-Dulaimi said the shepherd could reasonably argue for $200 million in compensation.
“The war was illegal because it was not endorsed by the UN, and Iraqi law authorizes the filing of suits against foreigners in Iraq’s tribunals,” he argued. “We hope the two US leaders will appear in front of the tribunal or that they will be represented.”
He said Ramadi’s tribunal had sent a letter to the Iraqi Justice Ministry which must now contact the Foreign Affairs Ministry. The latter will send a letter to Iraq’s embassy in Qatar to inform the US military’s Central Command there of the trial date in Ramadi.
Meanwhile, some 1,500 people protested after Friday prayers in Baghdad against the entry of US soldiers into a mosque overnight, an AFP correspondent reported. “Don’t violate mosques,” said one of the banners raised by the protesters, who were led by the prayer leaders, or imams, of the capital’s three major mosques. One protester said the troops entered Abu Hodeifa ibn Al-Yaman mosque around midnight Thursday and seized the equivalent of $90.
“It was a deliberate violation of Iraq’s holy places and we are here to protest against this provocation,” said Ahmad Al-Azawi, who lives in the mosque’s neighborhood in southeast Baghdad. “The Americans entered the mosque under the pretext of searching for weapons, but in reality, they were trying to provoke us,” said Zaki Al-Rawi.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=27414&d=14&m=6&y=2003&pi%20%20%20%20x=world.jpg&category=World
Agence France Presse
RAMADI, Iraq, 14 June 2003 — An Iraqi shepherd is seeking $200 million in damages from the US military for the deaths of 17 members of his family as well as 200 sheep in a missile strike, in the first such suit filed through the courts of the US-led occupation administration. The first hearing will take place on July 20 at the tribunal of Ramadi, 100 kilometers west of Baghdad.
“The trial will be Iraq’s first against US troops because we believe they used excessive force against the Iraqi people who cooperated with the United States to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime,” Abud Sarhan’s lawyer told AFP. Lawyer Rabah Al-Alwani was approached by Sarhan, 71, to file a suit against US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of US forces in Iraq, after the shepherd claimed a US missile landed on his tent on April 4.
Days before, Sarhan had left his home village of Al-Altash, near an Iraqi military base that was heavily bombed by coalition warplanes. He had set up a tent in the nearby desert to host 20 of his family members and relatives in three distinct sections, one for women, one for men and the other for children, said his half-brother Hamad Sarhan, 25, who was wounded in the attack.
“We thought we would be safe there. There were no military positions, only shepherds and their flocks. Before the night prayer, a missile landed next to us, shortly afterward another one fell right into the women’s section. It was horrible. We could not make out whose limbs were scattered on the ground,” he said.
All his family members died, except for him and his half-brother as the two had stepped outside the tent to perform their ablutions in preparation for the evening prayer. He said 200 of their 700 sheep also died in what he said was a coalition raid.
Missile debris, children’s clothes and sheep carcasses were still littering the ground two months later, an AFP correspondent at the scene reported.
The shepherd could not be interrogated as he had taken his 300 cows to graze up north, in the lush fields of Makhmur. “We went to Ramadi’s tribunal to file a suit and it was deemed receivable because we produced all the requested documents,” said Alwani.
The tribunal then informed the coalition through Iraq’s Justice Ministry where one of the coalition advisers is providing technical assistance, he added. His colleague Aref Al-Dulaimi said the shepherd could reasonably argue for $200 million in compensation.
“The war was illegal because it was not endorsed by the UN, and Iraqi law authorizes the filing of suits against foreigners in Iraq’s tribunals,” he argued. “We hope the two US leaders will appear in front of the tribunal or that they will be represented.”
He said Ramadi’s tribunal had sent a letter to the Iraqi Justice Ministry which must now contact the Foreign Affairs Ministry. The latter will send a letter to Iraq’s embassy in Qatar to inform the US military’s Central Command there of the trial date in Ramadi.
Meanwhile, some 1,500 people protested after Friday prayers in Baghdad against the entry of US soldiers into a mosque overnight, an AFP correspondent reported. “Don’t violate mosques,” said one of the banners raised by the protesters, who were led by the prayer leaders, or imams, of the capital’s three major mosques. One protester said the troops entered Abu Hodeifa ibn Al-Yaman mosque around midnight Thursday and seized the equivalent of $90.
“It was a deliberate violation of Iraq’s holy places and we are here to protest against this provocation,” said Ahmad Al-Azawi, who lives in the mosque’s neighborhood in southeast Baghdad. “The Americans entered the mosque under the pretext of searching for weapons, but in reality, they were trying to provoke us,” said Zaki Al-Rawi.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=27414&d=14&m=6&y=2003&pi%20%20%20%20x=world.jpg&category=World