KABUL — Local Taliban commanders threatened Thursday to kill a captured American soldier unless the U.S. military stops operations in two districts of southeastern Afghanistan.
The Taliban claimed last week to be holding the soldier, wh…
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‘Open fire and don’t ask questions’
July 15th, 2009 |
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Anonymous testimonies collated by human rights group also contain allegations that Palestinians were used as human shields
Israeli soldiers who served in the Gaza Strip during the offensive of December and January have spoken out about being ordered to shoot without hesitation, destroying houses and mosques with a general disregard for Palestinian lives.
In testimony that will fuel international and Arab demands for war crime investigations, 30 combat soldiers report that the army’s priority was to minimise its own casualties to maintain Israeli public support for the three-week Operation Cast Lead.
One specific allegation is that Palestinians were used by the army as “human shields” despite a 2005 Israeli high court ruling outlawing the practice. “Not much was said about the issue of innocent civilians,” a soldier said. “There was no need to use weapons like mortars or phosphorous,” said another. “I have the feeling that the army was looking for the opportunity to show off its strength.”
The 54 anonymous testimonies were collated by Breaking the Silence, a group that collects information on human rights abuses by the Israeli military. Many of the soldiers are still doing their compulsory national service.
Palestinians counted 1,400 dead but Israel put the death toll at 1,166 and estimated 295 fatalities were civilians. Ten soldiers and three Israeli civilians were killed.
Israel launched the attack after the expiry of a ceasefire designed to halt rocket fire from Gaza and crush the Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the coastal strip.
Witnesses described the destruction of hundreds of houses and many mosques without military reason, the firing of phosphorous shells into inhabited areas, the killing of innocents and the indiscriminate destruction of property.
Soldiers describe a “neighbour procedure” in which Palestinian civilians were forced to enter suspect buildings ahead of troops. They cite cases of civilians advancing in front of a soldier resting his rifle on the civilian’s shoulder.
“We did not get instructions to shoot at anything that moved,” said one soldier. “But we were generally instructed: if you feel threatened, shoot. They kept repeating to us that this is war and in war opening fire is not restricted.”
Many testimonies are in line with claims by Amnesty International and other human rights organisations that Israeli actions were indiscriminate and disproportionate.
Another soldier testified: “You feel like a stupid little kid with a magnifying glass looking at ants, burning them. A 20-year-old kid should not have to do these kinds of things to other people.”
The testimonies “expose significant gaps between the official army version of events and what really happened on the ground”, Breaking the Silence said.
“This is an urgent call to Israeli society and its leaders to sober up and investigate anew the results of our actions.”
Ehud Barak, Israel’s defence minister, said: “Criticism directed at the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) by one organisation or another is inappropriate and is directed at the wrong place. The IDF is one of the most ethical armies in the world and acts in accordance with the highest moral code.”
An IDF spokesman told the Ha’aretz newspaper: “The IDF regrets the fact that a human rights organisation would again present to the country and the world a report containing anonymous, generalised testimony without checking the details or their reliability, and without giving the IDF, as a matter of minimal fairness, the opportunity to check the matters and respond to them before publication.”
An internal investigation by the Israeli military said troops fought lawfully although errors did take place, such as the deaths of 21 people in a house that had been wrongly targeted.
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UK soldier filmed screaming at Iraqis
July 13th, 2009 |
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Video key evidence at inquiry into death of Iraqi soldier in British custody – a death which could have ‘rallied extremists’, says QC
A video of a British soldier screaming obscenities and abuse at hooded Iraqi detainees was shown today at the opening session of a public inquiry into how the hotel receptionist, Baha Mousa, was killed while in British custody.
The film shows Corporal Donald Payne, formerly of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, shouting and swearing at the Iraqis as they are forced to maintain painful “stress positions”.
The video is a key piece of evidence in a wide-ranging inquiry into the death of Mousa, which got under way today. Mousa died after sustaining 93 injuries while being detained by soldiers from the former Queen’s Lancashire Regiment in Basra, southern Iraq, in September 2003.
A central issue of the inquiry is why five “conditioning techniques” – hooding prisoners, putting them in stress positions, depriving them of sleep, depriving them of food and water, and playing white noise – were used on Iraqi detainees. The techniques, inflicted on IRA suspects, were banned in 1972 by the then prime minister, Edward Heath.
In an opening statement, Gerard Elias QC, counsel to the inquiry, said of the film: “Even if one considers only the video that we have just looked at, it may be thought to be entirely apparent that these detainees were being subjected to stress positions and prolonged hooding.
Detailing the abuses against six other Iraqis arrested with Mousa, Elias said: “One man says he was made to dance in the style of Michael Jackson.”
Other detainees claimed they were urinated on and forced to lie face down over a hole in the ground filled with excrement.
The inquiry heard “scandalous” allegations that the soldiers tried to manipulate the detainees’ moans into an “orchestrated choir”.
Elias said: “There was shouting, moaning – even screaming – coming from the TDF [temporary detention facility] from time to time during the detention, according to some witnesses.”
The inquiry was also told that Mousa’s injuries may have been more intentionally inflicted than was previously thought.
Elias said: “Statements to this inquiry now suggest perhaps a greater degree of deliberation than has hitherto been described.”
The hearing was told that Mousa died at about 10pm on 15 September 2003 after a “struggle” with Cpl Payne and another soldier, Private Aaron Cooper.
Elias said witnesses suggested that Payne was trying to restrain Mousa by putting his knee on the detainee’s back and pulling his arm back to put plastic handcuffs on him.
He went on: “It has been suggested that Baha Mousa’s head was banged on the floor or wall as this was happening.”
Different pathologists gave the cause of Mousa’s death as either asphyxia and multiple injuries or asphyxia alone, the inquiry heard.
The manner of his death risked undermining the sacrifices made by UK troops serving abroad, the inquiry in central London heard.
Elias QC said the manner of Mousa death could “act as a rallying cry for extremists.”
Outlining what the inquiry would examine, Elias said it would look at the training and guidance given in relation to the use of hooding and handcuffing and other tactics, he said. It would also explore whether the Ministry of Defence and the Cabinet Office had known of such tactics.
Seven soldiers faced a court martial at Bulford camp, in Wiltshire, on war crimes charges relating to the receptionist’s death. All but Cpl Payne were cleared on all counts in March 2007.
The court martial highlighted confusion among high-ranking military officers about whether the techniques were lawful.
The MoD has said it will not take disciplinary action against military personnel if their testimony to the inquiry suggests they earlier lied or withheld information.
The public inquiry hearings are expected to take about a year, including several breaks, with the chairman publishing his report and recommendations in autumn next year.
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