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Imperialist-lackey pigs kill 10 more Iraqis

anonymous | 12.07.2005 20:54 | Anti-militarism | Repression | Social Struggles | World

Iraqi police abuse and kill 10 Sunnis. Recent figures show ~40,000 "excess deaths" as a direct result of combat or armed violence sinced March 2003.

Reposted from:  http://mimnotes.info/news2.php?file=20050712imperialistlackey
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Imperialist-lackey pigs kill 10 more Iraqis

By HC116, July 12, 2005

Posted on mimnotes.info July 12, 2005



The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Iraqi police killed ten Sunnis, according to the Muslim Scholars Association. "Ten men arrested at a hospital while visiting relatives died after they were locked in a closed Iraqi police van for more than four hours in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, a Sunni Muslim group charged Monday."(1)

The ten people were arrested after visiting construction workers shot by u.$. troops. "According to the Sunni organization, the incident began Saturday when U.S. troops allegedly fired on construction workers in Baghdad. It is unclear what prompted the shooting, but two men were wounded and taken to Noor Hospital."(1)

These latest allegations of humyn rights abuses by the Iraqi police illustrate that even if u.$. troops were withdrawn from Iraq, the puppet government would still be able to viciously repress the Iraqi people despite any "training" not to engage in blatant abuses.

There are other reports of Iraqi police killing civilians. "Iraqi police have shot at peaceful marchers several times" during efforts last year to reach a peace deal to end fighting in Najaf.(3) Staff at the central Baghdad morgue have in the past few months noticed the bodies of Sunnis who were tortured. "Their hands had been tied or handcuffed behind their backs, their eyes were blindfolded and they appeared to have been tortured."(4) The Iraqi police is alleged to have killed these people. "Many Iraqis say the giveaway that the abductors are at least connected to the police is the preponderance of reports involving Land Cruisers, Glocks and other expensive equipment."(4)

According to a recent Graduate Institute of International Studies estimate, about 39,000 Iraqis, some liberation fighters, have died as a direct consequence of combat or armed violence since united $tates-led troops invaded Iraq in March 2003, a figure higher than previous estimates.(5)(6)

The Swiss Institute's "2005 small arms survey generally concludes that conflict deaths from small arms have been vastly under-reported in the past, not just in Iraq but around the globe."(5) Not only does this remind us that the imperialists still need to repress people through close combat, not just bombing, the report points out that there are prolonged lethal effects of imperialist military violence.

Small-arms fire can have prolonged deadly effects. "The number of indirect deaths around the world that can be blamed on small arms has also been underestimated, as these types of weapons typically trigger significant social disruption that leads to malnutrition, starvation, and death from preventable disease, according to the survey."(5) The Small Arms Survey 2005 is concerned with the "human tragedy caused by the proliferation and misuse of small arms and light weapons" (p. 3), but focuses on Third World countries.(9) Yet, imperialism causes many more deaths in the world every year than civil wars in Third World countries.

Small Arms Survey 2005 : Weapons at War notes that Iraqi civilian deaths have been deliberately hidden. "When deliberate misdirection is not used, 'casualty agnosticism' is sometimes employed. This practice involves avoiding making casualty estimates. For example, the US administration has stated that estimates of non-US casualties from fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past three years are either not available or not important to assessing campaign success" (p. 234, chapter 9).

Notes

1. Richard C. Paddock, "10 Reportedly Die in Police Custody," 12 July 2005,  http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/complete/la-fg-iraq12jul12,1,7738175.story?coll=la-iraq-complete

2. "Deaths of 10 Sunnis spur investigation," 12 July 2005,  http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/12108965.htm

3. "Iraqi Gov't Accepts Najaf Peace Deal," 26 August 2004,  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,130122,00.html

4. "Sunni men in Baghdad targeted by attackers in police uniforms," 27 June 2005,  http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/krwashbureau/_bc_usiraq_killings_wa

5. Irwin Arieff, "39,000 Iraqis killed in fighting: study," 12 July 2005,  http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1268&storyid=3431243

6. "100,000 Iraqi Civilian Deaths in 28 Months," 12 July 2005,  http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=14894

7. "Report: Conflict deaths underestimated," 11 July 2005,  http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/12108989.htm

8. "HEI - Graduate Institute of International Studies - Welcome!"  http://hei.unige.ch/

9. "Small Arms Survey - Publications - Yearbook 2005,"  http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/publications/yb_2005.htm

10. "IBC response to the Lancet study estimating '100,000' Iraqi deaths," 7 November 2004,  http://www.iraqbodycount.net/press/

11. "Millions Killed by Imperialism," 18 May 2005,  http://www.imperialismkills.org/stats/iraq/

anonymous
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