Tribunal hears witness testimonies of horrific torture
BRussells Tribunal reports (May 8th): The Kuala Lumpur War
Crimes Tribunal heard the testimony of the prosecution’s third witness Jameelah
Abbas Hameedi, who used to be the Head Chief of the Cooperation Unions in
Kirkuk. The 57-year-old Iraqi told of her torture in the Baghdad Airport and Abu
Ghraib prisons in 2004.
She told the 5-member tribunal panel via a translator that
on 13 January 2004, the American military broke into her home by force in
Kirkuk and rounded up her whole. She told the tribunal she was dragged by her
hair outside of the house into the winter rain in her nightclothes and her
hands were tied very tightly at the back with a wire. They destroyed all her
belongings in the house and alleged that the car battery charger they had found
is used to explode bombs.
She further told the tribunal she was taken to the Kirkuk
military airport via a military vehicle and in the process was hooded, kicked
like an animal, pushed out of the Hummer onto the road, dragged on the paved
road and later left standing at a wall. Jameelah further related that she was
placed in a tiny wooden cell with no windows with her daughter and her female
guest. They were not fed for two days and not allowed to use the toilet. She
said that she was eventually taken to an individual 2 metres by 2 metres cell
with no amenities. She was told that if she did not confess her other son would
be put in prison and her daughter raped.
She revealed to the tribunal that she was taken to a black
room, her clothes removed and asked to sit on her knees and hands and icy water
poured on her. She related that she was then beaten with a plastic tube
inserted with wood and when she dropped on the floor she was kicked until she
was bleeding on her shoulders, back, arms and legs.
The Children of Iraq
Bie Kentane reports to the BRussells Tribunal May 9th):
For two decades, Iraqi children, along with the rest of the population, have
been subjected to grave human rights violations, caused by decades of war,
foreign occupation and international sanctions.
Iraq has turned into one of the worst places for children in
the Middle East and North Africa with around 3.5 million living in poverty, 1.5
million under the age of five undernourished and 100 infants dying every day.
This report will focus on the violations by the occupying
forces and the Iraqi government of theConvention (IV) relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, Geneva, 12 August 1949[2], and
the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
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