Iraqi demands justice in rape-slay case

Post Comment   Email Story   Print Story   Read Comments

By SAMEER N. YACOUB
BAGHDAD, (Iraq) 04 July,2006 Tuesday)-Iraq's justice minister demanded Tuesday that the U.N. Security Council ensure that a group of U.S. troops are punished in the alleged rape and murder of a young Iraqi and the killing of her family, calling the attack "monstrous and inhuman."

Two female legislators also called for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to be summoned to parliament to give assurances the U.S. soldiers would be punished for the March 12 attack on the family in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad.

Meanwhile, gunmen in camouflage uniforms kidnapped Deputy Electricity Minister Raed al-Hares, along with 11 of his bodyguards in eastern Baghdad, security officials said.

The gunmen stopped al-Hares' convoy in the Shiite neighborhood of Talbiya, then forced the official and his bodyguards into their vehicles, said police Lt. Ahmed Qassim.

The kidnapping occurred three days after gunmen seized female Sunni legislator Tayseer al-Mashhadani in a Shiite area of east Baghdad. She and seven bodyguards are still missing.

The Mahmoudiya attack was among the worst in a series of cases of U.S. troops accused of killing and abusing Iraqi civilians. Iraq's largest newspaper, Azzaman, said in an editorial Tuesday the rape "summarizes what has been going in Iraq for the past years not only by the American occupation army, but also by some Iraqi groups."

Former Pfc. Steven D. Green appeared in federal court in Charlotte, N.C., on Monday to face murder and rape charges. At least four other U.S. soldiers still in Iraq are under investigation, and the military has stressed it taking the allegations seriously.

"If this act actually happened, it constitutes an ugly and unethical crime, monstrous and inhuman," said Justice Minister Hashim Abdul-Rahman al-Shebli al-Shebli, a Sunni Arab. "The Iraqi judiciary should be informed about this investigation which should be conducted under supervision of international and human organizations. Those involved should face justice."

"The ugliness of this crime demands a swift intervention of the U.N. Security Council to stop these violations of human rights and to condemn them so that they will not happen again," he added.

The two lawmakers, Safiya al-Suhail and Ayda al-Sharif, said condemnation was not enough.

"We demand severe punishment for the five soldiers involved," al-Sharif said. "Denouncements are not enough. If this act has taken place in another country, the world would have turned upside down."

Al-Suhail said al-Maliki should appear before parliament "to make sure investigations are taking place."

Mahmoudiya Mayor Mouayad Fadhil said Iraqi authorities have started their own investigation and that he had asked the hospital where the victims were taken for more details.

According to a federal affidavit, Green and three other soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division had talked about raping the young woman, whom they first saw while working at a traffic checkpoint near her home.

On the day of the attack, the document said, Green and other soldiers drank alcohol and changed out of their uniforms to avoid detection before going to the woman's house. Green used a brown T-shirt to cover his face.

Once there, the affidavit said, Green took three members of the family — a man and a woman and a girl estimated to be 5 years old — into a bedroom. Shots were heard. Green allegedly shot the woman in the head after he and another soldier raped her, the affidavit said.

Green was honorably discharged from the Army because of a "personality disorder" before the attack came to light, the affidavit said. He is being prosecuted in federal, rather than military court because he is no longer in the Army.

Iraqi authorities identified the rape victim as Abeer Qassim Hamza. The other victims were her father, Qassim Hamza, her mother, Fikhriya Taha, and her sister, Hadeel Qassim Hamza.

The affidavit estimated the rape victim was about 25. But a doctor at the Mahmoudiya hospital gave her age as 14. He refused to be identified for fear of reprisals.

Mahdi Obeid, a neighbor, said that on March 12, he saw fire coming from the house. He rushed over to find Abeer's body on fire. He extinguished the flames and saw bullets in her head and chest.

"It was a horrible scene," he said. "If I could go back in time, I would have not dared enter the house. I cannot wipe those barbaric scenes from my memory."

An insurgent group, the Mujahedeen Army, distributed an account of the incident on an Islamist Web site. It appeared the report, which generally corresponded with details already made public, was designed to draw attention to the deaths and stir up hostility against the U.S. military.

The Azzaman newspaper expressed skepticism the soldiers would be severely punished.

"The U.S. Army will conduct an investigation and the result at best is already known. One or two U.S. soldiers will receive a 'touristic punishment' and the whole crime will be forgotten as it happened with Abu Ghraib criminals," the newspaper said, referring to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. guards at a prison in west Baghdad.


((Associated Press reporters Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Bushra Juhi and Qais al-Bashir contributed to this report from Baghdad.)


Read Related News