Iraqi Shepherd Sues Rumsfeld,
Franks For $200
Million
6-14-3
- RAMADI, Iraq(AFP) -- An
Iraqi shepherd is seeking $200 million in damages from the US military
for the deaths of 17 members of his family as well as 200 sheep in a
missile strike, in the first such suit filed through the courts of the
US-led occupation administration. The first hearing will take place on
July 20 at the tribunal of Ramadi, 100 kilometers west of
Baghdad.
-
- "The trial will be Iraq's first against US troops
because we believe they used excessive force against the Iraqi people
who cooperated with the United States to topple Saddam Hussein's
regime," Abud Sarhan's lawyer told AFP. Lawyer Rabah Al-Alwani was
approached by Sarhan, 71, to file a suit against US Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of US forces in Iraq,
after the shepherd claimed a US missile landed on his tent on April
4.
-
- Days before, Sarhan had left his home village of
Al-Altash, near an Iraqi military base that was heavily bombed by
coalition warplanes. He had set up a tent in the nearby desert to host
20 of his family members and relatives in three distinct sections, one
for women, one for men and the other for children, said his half-brother
Hamad Sarhan, 25, who was wounded in the attack.
-
- "We thought we would be safe there. There were no
military positions, only shepherds and their flocks. Before the night
prayer, a missile landed next to us, shortly afterward another one fell
right into the women's section. It was horrible. We could not make out
whose limbs were scattered on the ground," he said.
-
- All his family members died, except for him and his
half-brother as the two had stepped outside the tent to perform their
ablutions in preparation for the evening prayer. He said 200 of their
700 sheep also died in what he said was a coalition raid.
-
- Missile debris, children's clothes and sheep carcasses
were still littering the ground two months later, an AFP correspondent
at the scene reported.
-
- The shepherd could not be interrogated as he had taken
his 300 cows to graze up north, in the lush fields of Makhmur. "We went
to Ramadi's tribunal to file a suit and it was deemed receivable because
we produced all the requested documents," said Alwani.
-
- The tribunal then informed the coalition through
Iraq's Justice Ministry where one of the coalition advisers is providing
technical assistance, he added. His colleague Aref Al-Dulaimi said the
shepherd could reasonably argue for $200 million in compensation.
-
- "The war was illegal because it was not endorsed by
the UN, and Iraqi law authorizes the filing of suits against foreigners
in Iraq's tribunals," he argued. "We hope the two US leaders will appear
in front of the tribunal or that they will be represented."
-
- He said Rama di's tribunal had sent a letter to the
Iraqi Justice Ministry which must now contact the Foreign Affairs
Ministry. The latter will send a letter to Iraq's embassy in Qatar to
inform the US military's Central Command there of the trial date in
Ramadi.
-
- Meanwhile, some 1,500 people protested after Friday
prayers in Baghdad against the entry of US soldiers into a mosque
overnight, an AFP correspondent reported. "Don't violate mosques," said
one of the banners raised by the protesters, who were led by the prayer
leaders, or imams, of the capital's three major mosques. One protester
said the troops entered Abu Hodeifa ibn Al-Yaman mosque around midnight
Thursday and seized the equivalent of $90.
- "It was a deliberate violation of Iraq's holy places
and we are here to protest against this provocation," said Ahmad
Al-Azawi, who lives in the mosque's neighborhood in southeast Baghdad.
"The Americans entered the mosque under the pretext of searching for
weapons, but in reality, they were trying to provoke us," said Zaki
Al-Rawi.
- http://www.arabnews.com
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