War Crimes in Fallujah/ Let them drink sand

[Guest guest]

War Crimes in Fallujah

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

 

Counterpunch

 

November 13 / 14, 2004

 

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn11132004.html

 

 

 

The United States is bringing " democracy " to Iraq on the same terms that the

Russians imposed its federal mandate on Chechnya, a region which has Iraq's

future written in its rubble. The advocates of intervention in Iraq, the

epigones of Wolfowitz , should take a walk through Grozny, and measure against

its

ruins the fate of their proclaimed ambition to bring democracy to Fallujah and

other cities in Iraq.

 

 

 

In the waning weeks of the US election campaign the antiwar movement here in

the US, was largely corralled into the Kerry campaign and strangled by the

bizarre contradiction of supporting a candidate whose " peace plank " was

continuing war. Will it now turn out that for many Kerry supporters their

interest in

the US war on Iraq was in fact mostly its utility as a rationale for attacking

Bush? Now that the race is over, will they forget the war along with Kerry's

disastrous campaign?

 

 

 

If there is anything that should fuel the outrage of the antiwar movement, it

is surely the destruction of Fallujah and the war crimes being inflicted by

US commanders on its civilian population, who are now being denied the most

basic and essential source of life, water.

 

 

 

This is not the first time that US forces have cut water supplies, something

explicitly forbidden under Article 14 of the second protocol of the Geneva

Conventions, which reads as follows:

 

 

 

" Starvation of civilians as a method of combat is prohibited. It is therefore

prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless for that purpose,

objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population such as

food-stuffs, agricultural areas for the production of food-stuffs, crops,

livestock,

drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works. "

 

 

 

Back in 1991 the US war planners targeted and destroyed the infrastructure of

Baghdad's water supplies, and the sanctions thereafter denied new equipment

necessary to repair it. In consequence civilians, particularly babies and young

children died in vast numbers.

 

 

 

Here at CounterPunch we are in receipt of a compelling dossier of the denial

of water to Iraqi civilians, assembled by Cambridge Solidarity with Iraq

(CASI)], whose briefing may also be studied at http://www.casi.org.uk/

 

 

 

Water supplies to Tall Afar, Samarra and Fallujah have been cut off during US

attacks in the past two months, affecting up to 750,000 civilians. This

appears to form part of a deliberate US policy of denying water to the residents

of

cities under attack. If so, it has been adopted without a public debate, and

without consulting Coalition partners. It is a serious breach of international

humanitarian law, and is deepening Iraqi opposition to the United States,

other Coalition members, and the Iraqi interim government.

 

 

 

On 19 September 2004, the Washington Post reported that US forces 'had turned

off' water supplies to Tall Afar 'for at least three days' . Turkish

television reported a statement from the Iraqi Turkoman Front that 'Tall Afar is

 

completely surrounded. Entries and exits are banned. The water shortage is very

serious'.

 

Al-Manar television in Lebanon interviewed an aid worker who stated that 'the

main problem facing the people of Tall Afar and adjacent areas is shortage of

water' Relief workers reported a shortage of clean water . Moreover, the

Washington Post reports that the US army failed to offer water to those fleeing

Tall Afar, including children and pregnant women .

 

 

 

'Water and electricity [were] cut off' during the assault on Samarra on

Friday 1 October 2004, according to Knight Ridder Newspapers and the

Independent.

The Washington Post explicitly blames 'U.S. forces' for this . Iraqi TV station

Al-Sharqiyah reported that technical teams were working to 'restore the power

and water supply and repair the sewage networks in Samarra' . Al Jazeera

interviewed an aid worker who confirmed that 'the city is experiencing a crisis

in

which power and water are cut off' , as well as the commander of the Samarra

Police, who reported that 'there is no electricity and no water' .

 

 

 

On 16 October the Washington Post reported that:

 

'Electricity and water were cut off to the city [Fallujah] just as a fresh

wave of strikes began Thursday night, an action that U.S. forces also took at

the start of assaults on Najaf and Samarra.' .

 

Residents of Fallujah have told the UN's Integrated Regional Information

Networks that 'they had no food or clean water and did not have time o store

enough to hold out through the impending battle' . The water shortage has been

confirmed by other civilians fleeing Fallujah, Fadhil Badrani, a BBC journalist

in

Fallujah, confirmed on November 8 that 'the water supply has been cut off'.

 

 

 

In light of the shortage of water and other supplies, the Red Cross Has

attempted to deliver water to Fallujah. However the US has refused to allow

shipments of water into Fallujah until it has taken control of the city.

 

 

 

According to the Cambridge dossier, the information reported above is more

widely known in Iraq than in the US and UK, and has had become a significant

political issue.

 

 

 

Condemnations of the tactic have been issued by several major Iraqi political

groups. On October 1 the Iraqi Islamic Party issued a statement criticizing

the US attack on Fallujah which 'cut off water, electricity, and medical

supplies', and arguing that such an approach 'will further aggravate and

complicate

the security situation'. It also called for compensation for the victims .

 

 

 

Three days later Muqtada al-Sadr criticized both the denial of water To

Samarra, and the lack of international outrage at it: 'They say that this city

is

experiencing the worst humanitarian situations, without water and electricity,

but no-one speaks about this. If the wronged party were America, wouldn't the

whole world come to its rescue and wouldn't it denounce this?'

 

 

 

 

http://pets.care2.com/

 

" The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. " --

Plato

" Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing

health care to all Americans is socialism. " -- anon