- BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- Besides
the prisoner-abuse scandal, there is another, more pervasive problem Iraqis
say they suffer daily at the hands of U.S. troops -- theft of money and
other property during aggressive American raids.
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- Over the past 14 months of occupation, U.S. forces have
carried out literally thousands of raids on homes across the country, routinely
seizing money, jewelry and other property from Iraqis suspected of "anti-coalition
activities."
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- Items are generally confiscated on suspicion they could
be used to finance attacks against U.S.-led forces, and the U.S. military
says it has had some success in cutting off funding for insurgents via
the policy.
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- But Iraqis say the raids often target the wrong people,
are carried out in an aggressive, even destructive manner and complain
that lifetime savings, precious jewelry and family heirlooms are regularly
stolen in the process.
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- Adel Alami, a lawyer with Iraq's Human Rights Organization,
says the majority of the cases his group deals with involve Iraqis seeking
compensation for lost property and cash.
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- "It's a huge problem, almost everyone has something
to say about gold, money and other valuables going missing and they don't
believe they'll ever get them back," he told Reuters.
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- Last year, Wajiha Daoud, an 80-year-old widow, had her
house in a middle-class neighborhood of old Baghdad raided by U.S. troops
who said they had "high-level intelligence" that the home was
a safe house for Saddam Hussein loyalists.
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- During the raid, which lasted around 30 minutes, the
woman and her family, who live across the street, were kept outside.
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- "When we went back in, the house was half-destroyed,"
said her son Musadaq Younis, an English-speaking computer technician.
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- "All the furniture was slashed with knives, tables
and chairs were broken and the windows smashed. They didn't need to break
down the front door -- I told them I had the key."
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- SAVINGS GONE
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- But that was not the worst. When Younis' sister arrived
she immediately rushed upstairs to a small cabinet and found it empty --
$5,000 in cash, gold and other jewelry, including her wedding ring, were
missing. "She went white," said Younis.
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- The family filed a claim against the U.S. military --
a complex process that took nearly three months to get a reply. In response,
the military said the raid was justified and no compensation was owed.
The officer who commanded the raid told Younis: "My soldiers aren't
thieves."
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- Being comfortably well-off and employed, the impact of
the loss on the family was not too great, but for hundreds, if not thousands
of other Iraqi families, raids on their homes can prove devastating, socially
and financially.
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- "Confiscation and theft during raids is rampant,"
said Stewart Vriesinga, a coordinator for Christian Peacemaker Teams, a
non-profit group that documents abuses in Iraq.
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- "Soldiers don't seem to understand the Iraqi custom
of not using banks -- a lot of people keep fairly substantial sums of money
at home. A soldier from Kentucky or wherever sees that and thinks the person
must be up to no good, so he takes it.
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- "We sure don't know how much money has been taken
from (Iraqis)...but it's enough to have serious socio-economic consequences,"
he told Reuters.
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- A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition said he was aware
of Iraqi complaints of theft during raids and said some U.S. soldiers had
been disciplined for "inappropriate conduct." But he said the
problem was "very rare, extremely rare."
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- "We're aware of it... But there's also the possibility
of Iraqis making malicious claims," said Captain Mark Doggett.
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- Doggett said when are items are confiscated, a receipt
is always given. If the owner is eventually found to be innocent, items
can be recovered, he said. But many people who have had property confiscated
say no receipts were written.
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- Vriesinga estimates that in nine out of 10 raids, the
home owners raided are innocent, but suffer huge consequences.
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- "If the husband is hauled off as a suspect, the
family has lost its breadwinner and often lost its savings and cash as
well," he said, citing a recent Red Cross report which referred to
up to 90 percent of Iraqi detainees being innocent.
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- If Iraqis file complaints, it comes down to a case of
the Iraqi suspect's word against the American soldier's, he said.
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- "If there's any doubt, then it's assumed the Iraqi
is lying -- the Americans are creating enemies by the score."
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