- SAMARRA -- Five American
soldiers have been accused of driving a 19-year-old Iraqi civilian to his
death in the Tigris river in one of the main centres of resistance to the
occupation.
-
- Zeidun Fadhil and his cousin Marwan Fadhil were allegedly
taken to a remote spot on the shore and ordered into the river at gunpoint.
When they refused, the soldiers were said to have forced them into the
river. Zeidun, who could not swim, drowned in the strong current. His cousin
survived to tell the story.
-
- A lawyer for the family of the dead man said US soldiers
in Samarratold the family there would be a full investigation, and that
a military investigator had interviewed the surviving cousin as a witness.
Nazar Fadhil, the dead man's uncle and the family lawyer, said the US military
had ordered Zeidun's body to be exhumed for an autopsy. He said the family
was awaiting the arrival of a forensic pathologist. He also said that the
US army had offered the family compensation, but that they had refused
it.
-
- Zeidun - full name Zeidun Mamun Fadhil al-Samarai - had
become engaged three weeks before his death, and was saving for his wedding.
The Independent was shown a letter from his mother, Widad, to President
George Bush and to Tony Blair in which she demands a full inquiry into
her son's death.
-
- Samarra, a Sunni city and one of the main centres of
Iraqi resistance to the American occupation, is seething with anger over
the alleged circumstances of his drowning.
-
- The incident happened on the night of 3 January. Zeidun
and Marwan, were returning to their home town of Samarra from Baghdad with
goods to sell in the back of their pick-up truck: paving stones, clocks
and watches. It was a trip they had made many times.
-
- The road south to Baghdad is dangerous because the large
numbers of American convoys travelling on it are targeted by insurgents,
but Zeidun needed the money for his forthcoming wedding.
-
- They arrived late, close to curfew, and were stopped
by an American patrol. After searching the pick-up truck the Americans
let the cousins go. But then, according to Marwan, one of the American
armoured vehicles followed them, stopped them a second time and ordered
the cousins into the back of their vehicle. It was then, Marwan said, that
the five soldiers drove him and Zeidun to a deserted spot on the banks
of the Tigris, near a dam outside Samarra, and ordered them into the river.
-
- There was a powerful current because water was being
let out of the dam, and at first the two young men refused.
-
- The soldiers then pointed their guns at the two men,
Marwan alleged, and pushed them into the river. Marwan, who can swim, managed
to reach a tree trunk. Zeidun did not get that far. His family did not
find his body until 12 days later.
-
- When they found the pair's abandoned truck, it and the
goods inside had been crushed. The family has photographs of the damage.
The truck looked as if it had been driven over by a heavy vehicle, and
the family accusesthe Americans of deliberately driving an armoured vehicle
over it, though there are no witnesses to support this.
-
- It is by no means clear that Zeidun Fadhil was intended
to die. It is possible he was the victim of an elaborate punishment designed
to humiliate the two young men - a punishment that went horribly wrong.
Marwan alleged the American soldiers were laughing as they pushed them
into the river.
-
- Samarra is part of the so-called "Sunni Triangle",
the area including Baghdad which has mounted the strongest Iraqi resistance
to the American occupation. US soldiers stationed in Samarra have faced
an almost daily onslaught of grenade and roadside bomb attacks.
-
- It appears that the two Fadhil cousins were stopped by
the American patrol on the streets soon after curfew began. Zeidun's family
insists that he and his cousin arrived in Samarra beforehand, but that
they were delayed when their truck was searched by the reconstituted Iraqi
army, which is now manning checkpoints for the Americans at the entrances
to restive towns such as Samarra.
-
- If the allegations about Zeidun's death are true, it
is possible that he and Marwan Fadhil were the victims of American soldiers
- worn-down, angry soldiers, who wanted to teach a couple of Iraqis a lesson.
If so, it was a lesson that went disastrously wrong.
-
- Zeidun's mother, in her letter to President Bush and
Mr Blair, said: "We found his jacket in the river. We shall keep it
as a souvenir of the justice my son got from the American soldiers. They
came to Iraq under the slogans of democracy and human rights, but in cold
blood they wedded my son to death even as he was preparing for his marriage.
-
- "I ask you to open an inquiry. Whatever you do will
not bring my son back to life. But maybe this will stop the pain of the
other mothers in my country."
-
- The US authorities would not comment on the case yesterday.
-
- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
-
- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=491210
|
