LMNOP | Roundup: 04.27.03

"In some ways, the peace has proved more lethal than the war."
- Hania Mufti
London Director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch.

The number of civilians killed or wounded since the war ended in northern Iraq is higher than it was during the conflict, Human Rights Watch said today.

Extensive research at five hospitals and morgues in Kirkuk and Mosul suggests that the high civilian tolls can be attributed to general lawlessness after the collapse of local authorities; the ready availability of weapons and ammunition; and the vast stores of ammunition and ammunition components left behind by the Iraqi military, including landmines, rocket-propelled grenades, and other explosives.

Many of the victims have been children who play with explosives or pick up unexploded ordnance (UXO) as toys and sustain serious injuries as a result.

"In some ways, the peace has proved more lethal than the war," said Hania Mufti, London Director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch.

At the al-Zahrawri Hospital (formerly al-Jumhuri Hospital) in Mosul, for example, emergency room records show that three civilians were treated on April 22 after an unidentified person riding a motorbike tossed a grenade in their direction. Another ten patients were brought in that day after a looting incident in the Hawi al-Kanisa area of the city. Three of them later died of their gunshot wounds.

The Iraqi authorities stored up huge amounts of ammunition and small arms in homes, schools, and other sites in residential areas in the run-up to the war. At the al-Bayda Secondary School for Girls in Kirkuk, Human Rights Watch researchers on April 13 found one classroom still stacked with dozens of boxes of ammunition, including rocket-propelled grenades, 82mm and 100mm mortar shells, and 12.7mm machine gun bullets. The guard at the school told Human Rights Watch that the Iraqi military had brought the ammunition to the school about five or six days before the start of the war, leaving one sentry in the classroom, and that students had been obliged to attend their classes in these conditions.

Storing ammunition in a functioning school is a violation of international humanitarian law.

At the al-Razi Hospital (formerly Saddam Hospital) in Mosul, one doctor in the emergency ward told Human Rights Watch that during the coalition bombing raids, most civilian casualties were the result of ammunition left behind by the Iraqi army in and around the city.

"The [Iraqi] army placed ammunition and weapons in between houses and among civilians in preparation for the war," the doctor said. "But the Americans did not attack these civilian areas. When the army withdrew, they left behind bombs, bullets, and machine guns. People, mostly children, picked these up and they exploded."

The doctor said that he treated about fifteen burn cases every day in the course of an eight-hour shift, often children who were trying to light loose gunpowder.

Another doctor at al-Razi Hospital in Mosul said on April 21 that he was often treating "tens of cases daily," mostly wounds sustained from landmines, exploding ammunition or bullets. He also said that Ba'ath Party loyalists were still present in the hospital and he could not speak freely, out of fear of reprisal attacks. "They are everywhere and they spy on us even now," he said, "so you can imagine what it was like before."

Injuries from sniper fire and hand grenades are still a major problem in Mosul, where the situation remains more volatile than in Kirkuk.

Doctors at the Azadi Hospital (formerly Saddam Hospital) in Kirkuk said that in the first three days after the city fell, they were treating around 70 patients every day, most of them civilians who had sustained bullet wounds, shrapnel wounds, and injuries caused by landmines and other explosives. Now, however, the numbers were falling to one or two a day, mostly children with burns on their faces and hands.

Anti-personnel landmines and ammunition are being found in holes dug in the ground in residential areas, while similar explosive materials were left strewn around the grounds of military bases on the perimeters of both Mosul and Kirkuk. The bases include the al-Khalid Garrison south of Kirkuk, a Republican Guard facility; and al-Ghazlani Garrison in Mosul.

The US plan is expected to call for the UN's Oil-for-Food programme to be phased out and for the country's oil money to be transferred into a fund managed by the Iraqi Central Bank and monitored by the World Bank and IMF.

A TRIUMPHANT United States plans to press home its advantage this week by seeking Security Council support for a resolution that effectively would sideline the United Nations in Iraq and transfer the country's oil wealth to a new Iraqi government. After a power struggle between the State Department and Pentagon, the White House has endorsed the Pentagon's hardline view that Washington should push the UN to endorse an interim Iraqi authority and lift sanctions on the country.

The goal is to set up the new Iraqi administration at a conference in Baghdad by June 3, when the present phase of the UN's Oil-for-Food scheme expires. The interim authority could then take control of Iraq's oil sales under the supervision of the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Stung by the UN's refusal to attend early meetings of those who opposed Saddam Hussein's regime, Washington wants to force the UN Secretary-General to appoint a special representative to play a consultative role in the creation of the authority.

One formula is for a 27-member interim authority made up of nine returning exiles and one representative from each of Iraq's 18 provinces. ÒThe idea is to create facts on the ground as quickly as possible to enhance our negotiating leverage,Ó one US official said.

The American proposal, which is expected to surface at the end of the week, is likely to encounter stiff opposition in the 15-nation Security Council, where Russia and France, both veto-bearing permanent members, are insisting on a central UN role.

In an effort to meet Washington halfway, Paris has proposed the immediate suspension of non-military UN sanctions, but continues to insist that UN inspectors must verify that Iraq has been disarmed before the embargo is finally lifted. The United States does not want the UN inspectors to return to Iraq and has told the Security Council that the coalition has assumed responsibility for disarming the country.

Another bone of contention will be control of Iraq's oil wealth. The US plan is expected to call for the UN's Oil-for-Food programme to be phased out and for the country's oil money to be transferred into a fund managed by the Iraqi Central Bank and monitored by the World Bank and IMF.

London favours a greater UN role than does Washington, but the Bush Administration is gambling that it can push through its proposals because, after its swift military victory, other Security Council members will not want to restart the protracted diplomatic combat that preceded the war.

"This can happen anywhere. You're witnessing the beginning of facism. That's what this is all about, make no mistake about it."
- Clarence Thomas
dockworkers union

(KCBS)--Protestors marched on the Oakland City Hall Saturday to draw attention to the tactics police used to break up an anti-war protest earlier this month.

KCBS reporter Henry Mulak in Oakland says the protestors held a rally at Jack London Square before heading off on a march to city hall.

They protest was against the April 7th crackdown by police at the Port of Oakland during which officers fired pellet filled grenades, bean bags and wooden bullets at anti-war demonstrators.

Dockworkers at the port along with some demonstrators were fired upon causing some injuries.

"This can happen anywhere. You're witnessing the beginning of facism. That's what this is all about, make no mistake about it," claimed Clarence Thomas with the dockworkers union who alleges police conspired with shippers who run the port and the federal government.

Police have commented little about the incident since claims have been filed by those injured, which is often the first step toward a lawsuit.

The Oakland Police chief has said in previous comments that non-lethal projectiles were needed to disperse the crowd but the department will re-evaluate its use of force.

"I have never come across a group of people, let alone a group of activists, who are more peacefully interested in the human condition, and the animal condition, than these people," Straza said yesterday. "They are pacifists and peace activists."

Federal agents from the Joint Terrorism Task Force raided a Somerset County house this week that served as the headquarters for an animal rights organization, authorites said yesterday. The raid on Wednesday was part of a nationwide investigation into possible criminal activities by the group, authorities said yesterday.

Investigators executed a search warrant on the home in Franklin Township, whose occupant is a leader of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, or SHAC, said Special Agent Steve Kodak, a spokesman for the FBI's Newark division.

The group has conducted a years-long campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences, a company whose laboratory in Franklin Township uses animals for research purposes.

Bill Strazza, an attorney for SHAC, said the house, on Home Street not far from Rutgers University, serves as the organization's headquarters and was rented by Kevin Kjonaas, who is considered the main force behind the group.

Kjonaas, who is in his mid-20s and also goes by the name Kevin Jonas, had packed his belongings and was in the process of moving when agents arrived at the 1 1/2-story, red brick single-family home on Wednesday morning. Investigators carted off "just about anything that wasn't nailed down" including notebooks, private journals and computers, Strazza said.

Kjonaas, who was not arrested, served briefly as spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front, a loose organization of radical animal rights activists, which the FBI says is responsible for more than 600 cases of ecoterrorism nationwide. Those cases range from spray-painting buildings and breaking windows to firebombing fur farms and research centers, according to the FBI.

Strazza, however, vehemently denied that Kjonaas or other SHAC members are involved in criminal activity. The group engages only in lawful campaigns and protests, he said.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark confirmed that the raid occurred, but declined to comment on the investigation. Kodak, the FBI spokesman, also declined comment on specifics of the investigation.

Strazza, however, said the raid was part of an ongoing investigation by a federal grand jury that has so far issued subpoenas in California, Texas and Chicago. The FBI has placed SHAC on a list of terrorist organizations, he said.

"I think we are unfortunately in a political environment where criminalizing dissent is becoming popular again," he said.

In another development Wednesday, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, comprised of both state and federal agents, raided a home in Seattle, Wash., as part of the same investigation, according to The Seattle Times newspaper, which cited a search warrant on file in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

According to the Seattle warrant, agents are investigating suspected arson, violations of federal interstate commerce statutes and "animal enterprise terrorism" -- terrorism against companies involved in animal enterprises -- by radical animal rights groups.

The occupants of the Seattle home have been linked to animal rights organizations, though it was unclear whether SHAC is among them.

Lawrence Lincoln, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle, declined to comment.

SHAC has targeted Huntingdon Life Sciences, its insurers and its financial backers in its efforts to end the company's use of animals in scientific research. Founded in the United Kingdom, Huntingdon tests pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemicals, mostly on animals. It has long been targeted by animal rights activists seeking to shut it down.

In 1997, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) lodged a complaint against Huntingdon after the group conducted an undercover investigation, which found that 36 beagles were to have their legs broken in order to test an osteoporosis drug.

The experiment was called off and the U.S. Department of Agriculture fined Huntingdon $50,000 for violating the Animal Welfare Act.

In April 2001, 14 beagles that were being used in tests were stolen during a break-in at the Huntingdon's lab in Franklin, hailed as a "liberation" by animal rights groups. In protests the next day, four animal rights activists were arrested on various charges, including resisting arrest, obstruction of justice and disorderly conduct.

Two months later, a judge ordered SHAC to stop holding protests of more than 50 people in front of the company's Franklin Park building, restricting larger demonstrations to a park several hundred feet away.

In a February interview with The Star-Ledger, Sidney Caspersen, director of the state Office of Counter Terrorism, said his office had assigned investigators to monitor hate groups and animal rights groups in New Jersey and elsewhere for alliances with foreign nationals.

NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

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