by Karen Button
Doctors for Iraq (DFI), a 250-member medical organization, has released a new report entitled “Falluja—One Year On” that calls for an independent investigation in to human rights abuses conducted during the city’s two sieges last year by US led troops.
The report substantiates recent revelations by Italian television that the US military used white phosphorus and a form of napalm against civilians in Fallujah, a charge initially denied by the US government but later admitted.
The report charges that medical facilities were attacked and that chemical agents were used against civilians. Furthermore, food, water and medical care were denied, mitary curfews were imposed that impeded stores from selling food, and random arrests and collective punishment were the norm. The organization calls upon the United Nations and the European Union to conduct the investigations.
The report has added to the embitterment Fallujans feel one year after the siege. Fallujah remains under strict military rule with checkpoints at all entrances to the city and residents must possess a US issued biometric identity to reenter. Only about half of the city’s original population have returned to their devastated town while promises of reconstruction go unfulfilled. Shortages of water, fuel and electricity along with continuing home raids mark daily reality for those that have returned.
Drinking water, pumped directly from the
Euphrates River, has contributed to a
serious rise in waterborne illnesses.
Though the official siege on Fallujah ended last December, residents still have a military curfew imposed on them from 11pm to 6am, and their lives are anything but routine. When entering their own city, “people are often searched in an aggressive manner, verbally abused and humiliated,” the DFI report states. “These checkpoints have become mechanisms to control the entire population of the city and many local residents have described Falluja as being like ‘one big prison.’”
The Sunday Times reports the presence of 4,200 American Marines and 5,000 Iraqi National Guardsmen for the 170,000 residents. However, there is little real authority in Fallujah. Two people interviewed told of being robbed by Iraqi security forces while returning home with cash they had just received in compensation for their destroyed homes. Many others complained that their businesses had been broken into and items stolen by Iraqi forces during the nighttime curfew.
"We are afraid of the National Guards and American soldiers who are supposed to be protecting us," Um Ahmad said. "Things are getting worse." Others, like Abu Seif, report of random home raids in which they were taken into custody and tortured. "What the Americans have done to Falluja is unacceptable, and if they think it is over they do not know what is coming," he said.
“The bitter truth is that the actions of US and Iraqi forces have reignited the insurgency. Anger, hate and mistrust of America are deeper than ever,” concludes Hala Jaber.
