Letter to Congress on U.S. Embargo of Buhrez, Iraq
The Hon. Kendrick Meek
1039 Longworth House Office Building
Washington DC 20515
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Dear Kendrick,
Disturbing stories are coming out of Iraq of new atrocities and violations of international law committed by American forces there:
“Near the city of Buhrez, 5 kilometers south of Baquba, two Humvees of American soldiers were destroyed recently. American and Iraqi soldiers came to the city afterwards and cut all the phones, cut the water, cut medicine from arriving in the city and told them that until the people of the city bring the “terrorists” to them, the embargo will continue.”
This report went on to explain that the embargo had already been in effect for a week, and that no one had been allowed to leave the town. At first, Al-Sadr’s militia was allowed to bring in some water, food and medicine, but this had now been prohibited. With American leadership, the 4th Geneva Convention (1949) outlawed collective punishment of protected persons in occupied territory in response to precisely this type of action by German and Japanese forces during World War II. Now our own forces are committing the same crimes.
In November, U.S. Marines destroyed Fallujah and massacred its people under “weapons-free” rules of engagement, a euphemism for a “free-fire zone”. Males between the ages of 15 and 40 were not permitted to leave the city before the assault, ensuring their deaths. The Nazzal Emergency Hospital was bombed to the ground, killing doctors, staff and patients. Mark 77 Mod 5 bombs (“improved” napalm, with jet fuel in place of gasoline) were used to incinerate houses and the people inside them, and there have been allegations that white phosphorus, a banned chemical weapon, was used in artillery shells.
Recent reports show that the destruction of Fallujah has become a model for assaults on smaller towns all over Western and Northern Iraq, including al-Quaim and Haditha. A doctor from al-Quaim sent out “an URGENT humanitarian request from the hospitals in the west of the country”, saying he had proof of the American destruction of a hospital there, as well as of the murder of a patient in his bed and the burning of “the whole store of medication of the west area of Iraq”.
When will our leaders come to their senses and put a stop to this madness? When will you stand up as a Congressman and as a member of the House Armed Services Committee to express the outrage that more and more Americans are feeling as we gradually come to understand what is being done in our name? What will happen to our neighbors’ children when they finally come home and have to live with what they have done on the illegal orders of this corrupt government?
Yours sincerely
1039 Longworth House Office Building
Washington DC 20515
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Dear Kendrick,
Disturbing stories are coming out of Iraq of new atrocities and violations of international law committed by American forces there:
“Near the city of Buhrez, 5 kilometers south of Baquba, two Humvees of American soldiers were destroyed recently. American and Iraqi soldiers came to the city afterwards and cut all the phones, cut the water, cut medicine from arriving in the city and told them that until the people of the city bring the “terrorists” to them, the embargo will continue.”
This report went on to explain that the embargo had already been in effect for a week, and that no one had been allowed to leave the town. At first, Al-Sadr’s militia was allowed to bring in some water, food and medicine, but this had now been prohibited. With American leadership, the 4th Geneva Convention (1949) outlawed collective punishment of protected persons in occupied territory in response to precisely this type of action by German and Japanese forces during World War II. Now our own forces are committing the same crimes.
In November, U.S. Marines destroyed Fallujah and massacred its people under “weapons-free” rules of engagement, a euphemism for a “free-fire zone”. Males between the ages of 15 and 40 were not permitted to leave the city before the assault, ensuring their deaths. The Nazzal Emergency Hospital was bombed to the ground, killing doctors, staff and patients. Mark 77 Mod 5 bombs (“improved” napalm, with jet fuel in place of gasoline) were used to incinerate houses and the people inside them, and there have been allegations that white phosphorus, a banned chemical weapon, was used in artillery shells.
Recent reports show that the destruction of Fallujah has become a model for assaults on smaller towns all over Western and Northern Iraq, including al-Quaim and Haditha. A doctor from al-Quaim sent out “an URGENT humanitarian request from the hospitals in the west of the country”, saying he had proof of the American destruction of a hospital there, as well as of the murder of a patient in his bed and the burning of “the whole store of medication of the west area of Iraq”.
When will our leaders come to their senses and put a stop to this madness? When will you stand up as a Congressman and as a member of the House Armed Services Committee to express the outrage that more and more Americans are feeling as we gradually come to understand what is being done in our name? What will happen to our neighbors’ children when they finally come home and have to live with what they have done on the illegal orders of this corrupt government?
Yours sincerely
posted by Nicolas Davies | 12:27 PM
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