Humanitarian Crisis Intensifies in Fallujah as Iraqi Gov’t Accused of Killing Over 100 Civilians
by Democracy Now on 06-03-2014
A
new report by Truthout has revealed doctors, residents and
non-governmental organization workers in the city of Fallujah are
accusing the Iraqi government of war crimes and crimes against humanity
in its ongoing attack against the city. According to one account, at
least 109 civilians have been killed and 632 wounded since January when
Iraqi government forces began shelling Fallujah in its fight against
militants. For more on this developing story, we are joined by Dahr
Jamail, a staff reporter at Truthout.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to Iraq. A new report by Truthout has revealed doctors, residents and NGO
workers in the city of Fallujah are accusing the Iraqi government of
war crimes and crimes against humanity in its ongoing attack against the
city. According to one account, at least 109 civilians have been killed
and 632 wounded since January, when Iraqi government forces began
shelling Fallujah in its fight against militants.For more on this, we’re joined by Dahr Jamail, staff reporter at Truthout. He’s joining us from Doha, Qatar.
Dahr, tell us what you found.
DAHR JAMAIL: By phoning in to several doctors in Fallujah—well, one of them, in fact, who is—had to flee because her home was being shelled, so she had to take her family and leave—but after speaking with all three of them, I found, you know, the really shocking numbers that you just discussed as far as the total numbers of dead and wounded. But in addition to that, they’re all claiming, from different parts of the city, that it’s really indiscriminate firing, that the military, the Iraqi military, that they all are referring to as Maliki—as in Prime Minister of Iraq Nouri al-Maliki’s military—that Maliki’s army has been shelling the city indiscriminately, that they aren’t—they aren’t seeing any official targets or anything military for them to target, that the main hospital, Fallujah General Hospital, has been shelled, that we have a situation where apparently several mosques have been shelled, and unknown numbers of civilian homes have also been shelled. And in addition to the numbers that you just spoke of, we—according to Dr. Ahmed Shami, the head of—the chief of resident doctors at Fallujah General Hospital, there’s been at least 10 children killed, 40 wounded, and in addition to that, five women killed and at least 35 wounded. And those statistics are now a few days out of date, and the shelling has continued since I wrote this report.
AMY GOODMAN: So, take us back to 2004 in Fallujah, 10 years ago, and talk about what has happened in this city for the past decade.
DAHR JAMAIL: What’s happening now is very disturbing because there are so many parallels between what happened in 2004. Remember, I was in—by the time we got to the end of 2003 in the U.S. occupation, Fallujah was essentially a no-go zone for the U.S. military. I managed to go in there a couple of times in December of 2003, and then again a little bit later than that, and found that people there were very much opposed to U.S. military occupation. The detentions that were going on, the stories were already coming out of Abu Ghraib, so there was a lot of tension in the city and a lot of fierce resistance against the military. So, by the time it got to the point that the four Blackwater mercenaries were killed in—I believe it was on April 4, 2004, that was a situation that the Bush administration used to essentially say, "OK, we’re going to take advantage of this and go full-on into the city."
So, on April 8, the first siege was launched. That was a siege that I
reported to you from inside the city, from a small clinic where the same
thing was happening then—indiscriminate bombings, ambulances being
targeted. Medical supplies weren’t being allowed into the city. That’s
happening now, as well, no medical supplies being allowed in. Women
being killed, children. I was seeing a lot of this with my own eyes. And
then—and then that siege went on for about a month before the military
realized they could not take the city, so basically a détente was
reached, and we had about six months, between May—May 4th, I believe it
was—until November 8, when, again, the military just was softening up
the city—artillery strikes, air strikes. Funeral parties—funeral
processions were being hit. Wedding parties were being hit. And then on
November 8, just after the presidential election in the United States,
carte blanche was given: Invade the city; do whatever you need to do. So
a full-scale invasion was launched—again, to so-called root out
terrorists.
At that time, they were claiming the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi was in the city, despite the fact that there’s to date never
been any evidence delivered that showed his presence in the city at any
time. But again, that was the pretense used, just like now the pretense
being used that, well, the city is controlled by terrorists, people
belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. And while there is a
small presence of those members within the city, all the reports I’ve
been getting, including from the doctors themselves, say it’s the
tribes, the local tribes, who are in charge of the city. They’re just
trying to keep the military out, because the military has been accused,
for over a year now—and I reported on this in March when I was in
Iraq—that the Maliki army is being accused of detentions, widespread
torture and even rape in the prisons.
AMY GOODMAN: Is the U.S. involved in any way anymore in Iraq?
DAHR JAMAIL:
Well, to date, according to the Congressional Research Service, the
U.S. has sold over $20 billion worth of arms into Iraq. And when this
situation in Fallujah arose, if you remember—I believe it was even
reported on Democracy Now!—that the Obama administration was rushing armaments and missiles into the Iraqi military to be used in this situation directly.
AMY GOODMAN: What are the people of Fallujah calling for, finally, Dahr?
DAHR JAMAIL:
They’re saying they just want peace. They just want the military to
leave them alone. They can handle the small amount of the members of the
ISIS that are in the city—again, very similar
parallels to what I saw in 2004. They want the military to stop the
indiscriminate shelling, and they’re calling on the U.N. to investigate,
and then, of course, to get—allow medical supplies and other relief
supplies back into the city, as well as to allow all the hundreds of
thousands of refugees back home.
AMY GOODMAN:
Just a news report right now: Armed men wearing military uniforms
seized the City Council headquarters in Samarra and briefly took
employees hostage.
DAHR JAMAIL:
We have unrest all around Anbar province because of unmet demands from
people in the tribes and religious leaders across the province to
Maliki’s government. So, are we going to keep seeing this kind of thing,
armed resistance against the military? Until some of these demands of
stop the home raids, stop the illegal detentions, stop the
torturings—until some of these demands are met, this is going to be
ongoing.
AMY GOODMAN: Dahr Jamail, I want to thank you very much for being with us, staff reporter at Truthout, speaking to us from Doha, Qatar. And that does it for our broadcast. We’ll link to his report.
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