Listen
to this story: IRAQI CIVILIANS SUE GENERAL TOMMY
FRANKS FOR WAR CRIMES
Audio-file
from pacifica
radio, may 7 2003
As the Bush administration gives the leadership in occupied Iraq a face
lift, Iraqi civilians are preparing to sue Gen. Tommy Franks and other U.S.
military officials for war crimes in Iraq.
Lawyer Jan Fermon says the complaint will be presented in a Belgian
court next week. It will state that coalition forces are responsible for the
indiscriminate killing of Iraqi civilians, the bombing of a marketplace in
Baghdad that killed scores, the shooting of an ambulance, and failure to
prevent the mass looting of hospitals.
Meanwhile, the BBC has uncovered evidence that US troops not only failed
to prevent mass looting in Iraq, but encouraged it. Eyewitnesses told the BBC
US troops encouraged looters to storm the campus of Nasiriya's Technical
Institute. The institute's acting dean, Dr Khalid Majeed, said he appealed to
US troops to prevent the looting. They refused. When his colleague manage to
rouse some Americans based near the local fire station, they arrived in five
vehicles and fired several dozen rounds at the college's south wall. Now the
college of higher education is a shell, its laboratories and lecture rooms
charred almost beyond recognition.
Washington has reacted angrily to the lawsuit. The US State Department
has told Belgium not to allow its laws to be used for "political
ends". A senior Bush administration official warned there will be
"diplomatic consequences" for Belgium if the complaint is taken up by
a court.