Fallujans to Receive Medical, Legal Help

by Karen Button

After the dust settled from the US siege on Fallujah in November that left some 2000 Iraqis and 70 American soldiers dead, horrific stories of the assault began to emerge. They quickly escalated into charges of alleged war crimes.

The US’s first major target in Fallujah was its general hospital where soldiers terrified patients and medical staff in mass arrests before seizing command of the facility. As reported in both The Nation and the Los Angeles Times, two days later a medical clinic, whose coordinates had been given to the Americans, had three bombs dropped on it during a 5:30 am air raid. In addition to the 35 patients who were killed, 24 doctors, nurses and other health staff also lost their lives. Both of these medical facilities are protected under international law.

Witnesses also claimed ambulances were shot at by troops, as they were last April during the US’s previous offensive in Fallujah. This time troops wounded the hospital’s director, on his way back in from Baghdad in a new ambulance, according to documents from the San Francisco-based Association for Humanitarian Lawyers.

Whole families fled, prior to the attack, emptying a city of 300,000 to about 100,000. Yet males aged 16-55 were denied exit from the city under the assumption they were all combatants. Numerous reports detail civilians being targeted for death by snipers, the most appalling being those who were shot dead while attempting to swim across the Euphrates River. Iraqi Bilal Hussein, an Associated Press photographer from Fallujah, told this eyewitness account after his own harrowing escape.

Numerous reports detail napalm-like chemicals (banned by the United Nations since 1980) being used, of tanks running over civilians, and of the dead being left to rot on the streets, or be eaten by packs of starving dogs.

Inexplicably, in the aftermath the US denied humanitarian aid to the tens of thousands left injured, homeless, and without food or water. They also prevented doctors, ambulances, medical equipment and supplies from the hospital from tending the wounded in the city. Later, requests from the United Nations to investigate alleged human rights abuses were rejected, and, it must be added, not pursued by the UN.

The US has denied any wrongdoing, but when NBC photojournalist Kevin Sites caught a marine on film shooting an unarmed Iraqi resistance fighter, there was not much to deny. And photos obtained by independent reporter Dahr Jamail and posted to his website (www.dahrjamailiraq.com) reveal the level of offenses committed; the dead include young women, elderly men, people shot while still in their beds, and a one young boy clutching a white flag.

Now, tens of thousands of Fallujan refugees are encamped in Baghdad and the outskirts of Fallujah without adequate shelter, clothing, medical aid, food or clean drinking water. In one case, reported by The Nation, “three children died of dehydration when their father was unable to find water” as a result of the city’s water supply being cut by US troops before their assault.

The US government, in a campaign of image control, has focused attention on rebuilding Fallujah and encouraging residents to return to their homes rather than deal with the humanitarian crisis created. The few who’ve attempted return have found their city still in shambles and unlivable, while pockets of violence continue to rage.

The San Francisco-based Association of Humanitarian Lawyers and Los Angeles-based Humanitarian Law Project have filed an emergency petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), a body within the Organization of American States. The case was filed against the US government for its role in the attacks on Fallujah’s medical facilities, illegal under international humanitarian law, and seeks immediate redress for the victims.

The Commission on Human Rights, which has authority to investigate human rights abuses by a member state, must first decide if it will accept jurisdiction for Iraq. Karen Parker, lead attorney for the case, argues that because Iraq is occupied by the US, it is legally a territory, and therefore a member state. Precedent for such an argument exists with the parallel body at the Council of Europe. There, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the offending state only needed to be a member.

Under provisions within the OAS, the Commission can order the US to prevent “irreparable harm” to the victims; meaning immediate medical care must be provided. The petitioners also requested the Commission make an immediate visit to Fallujah to make a direct assessment of the situation.

Similar proceedings are in progress against the United Kingdom. In a recent landmark decision, the UK High Court ruled that the Ministry of Defense was bound to the European Convention on Human Rights in the death of Baha Mousa, an Iraqi who died while detained by UK forces. Human rights groups now anticipate the MoD will be forced to hold public inquiries into the deaths of at least seven Iraqis who died while in military custody. The cases could have far-reaching implications on how the British military conducts itself overseas, especially with regard to detainees.

The European sister organization to the OAS could set the stage for US liability; if the UK is held responsible for less egregious acts, the OAS may be under more pressure to act accordingly.

How much teeth an OAS court ruling has remains to be seen. If the past is any indication, not much; the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) still has a case pending on the US invasion of Panama. But the court of international public opinion has never been more critical of US foreign policy and the additional lawsuits filed in Germany over torture at Abu Ghraib (also by CCR) may force a collective accountability the Bush Administration cannot ignore, such as what finally happened with Chile’s dictator, General Augusto Pinochet.

In the meantime, Fallujah’s refugees cannot wait. And fortunately, at least some of them won’t have to.

Where the US government has failed, US citizens are stepping in. An extraordinary delegation of families who have lost their sons in the war on Iraq or on September 11 have taken the task upon themselves to provide humanitarian relief and thus, start the process of understanding.

Families for Peace traveled to Amman, Jordon with $600,000 in donations, medical supplies and desperately needed necessities, like heaters and water purifiers, to deliver to teams of Iraqi humanitarian aid workers at the Iraq/Jordon border at the start of the new year. Teams of doctors in Baghdad will then coordinate the distribution of aid to Fallujans affected by the US onslaught, about 70 percent of who are women, children and the elderly.

About $100,000 was raised in a matter of days through an Internet appeal from GlobalExchange and an additional $500,000 in medical supplies was donated by the Middle East Children’s Alliance and Operation USA.

When asked how far the aid might go, one Baghdad-based organizer said, “maybe a family will only get a portable heater, but that is a huge thing for folks who are sleeping in a tent on the ground.”

As funds continue to amass, hopes are for additional aid being delivered.

As the delegation goes back home and the supplies find their way to those who need it, there is something else left in the wake, beyond the aid. Where the US government has sown too many seeds of disaster and unthinkable contempt for Iraqi culture, this delegation, especially with its military family component and the numerous individual-to-individual meetings with Iraqis, is leaving behind profound possibilities for understanding and eventual reconciliation.