05 July 2006
United States Investigating Iraqi Civilian Abuse Allegations
No American service member immune from prosecution, says spokesman
Washington – The U.S. military is committed to open, complete investigations and full accountability for any soldiers found to be mistreating Iraqi civilians, Army Major General William Caldwell told journalists in a July 5 press briefing from Baghdad, Iraq.
“[W]e will leave no stone unturned in our pursuit of the facts, and we'll hold our service members accountable if and when found guilty of misconduct in a court of law,” said the spokesman for coalition forces in Iraq.
In recent months, Caldwell said, military investigators have confronted several cases in which forces are accused of attacks on Iraqi noncombatants. Among these are the November 2005 killings of 24 people in Haditha following an insurgent attack and, most recently, the alleged sexual assault of an Iraqi woman and her murder along with three members of her family in Mahmoudiyah in March.
“Coalition forces came to Iraq to serve, to uphold human dignity, to protect the rights and freedoms of ordinary Iraqis, and to defend democratic values,” making these events a direct attack on the armed forces’ core values of “honor, duty, courage, commitment, loyalty and integrity,” said Caldwell.
Troops are expected to comply fully with the law of armed conflict and the rules of engagement, he said. “We take allegations of wrongdoing by coalition forces very seriously, and are committed to thoroughly investigating such allegations.”
If military investigators find troops violating these rules, Caldwell said, “Coalition leadership is committed to holding fair and impartial proceedings and full compliance with the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”
“[T]here's not one service member here who is immune from prosecution if they do something … of a criminal or unethical nature,” Caldwell said.
These investigations have produced results. On June 25, for example, two U.S. soldiers were charged with voluntary manslaughter for killing an unarmed Iraqi civilian outside his home three months ago. Following another investigation, seven marines and a sailor were charged with premeditated murder, kidnapping and other offenses following the April 26 killing of an Iraqi civilian in Hamdania, a town south of Baghdad.
Caldwell said that the coalition would work closely with the Iraqi government throughout the investigations, and would endeavor to operate as openly as possible so that the Iraqi people will see how the U.S. military addresses wrongdoing in its ranks, a marked contrast with the country’s recent past under Saddam Hussein.
“Under the Saddam regime,” he said, “if an Iraqi force had come in, a military force, into some place and done something, there was absolutely no accountability and the people did not expect to see any follow-on action taken. Whereas in this case, we have alleged events that have occurred, [and] we're thoroughly investigating them.”
Three soldiers involved in the Hamdania incident are being held at a U.S. military base in Iraq, and military prosecutors are questioning several others. Another individual alleged to be the main perpetrator recently left the military, but was arrested in the United States on June 30. Caldwell said that he would be prosecuted in federal court under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which allows crimes committed in foreign countries by current or former military personnel to be tried under the same laws as if the acts were committed within the United States.
Caldwell said that these allegations of wrongdoing among a handful of soldiers must not detract from the work of the million American service members who have served honorably, working with their Iraqi counterparts to bring democracy and stability to Iraq.
“Our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines do their utmost each day for the sake of freedom both at home and here abroad … the acts of a few should not outweigh the deeds of the many.”
A video link to Caldwell’s briefing is available on the U.S. Department of Defense Web site.
For more information, see Iraq Update.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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