Blood is Precious
Family members left behind by those who have died violent deaths amidst the occupation of Iraq, whether they are Iraqi or American, have every reason to be bitter. After all, each death is due to an illegal occupation as the result of an illegal invasion of a sovereign country (although the United States government disputes this view). With over 1,340 dead US soldiers and an estimated 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians as a result of the war and occupation, there are many families left behind engulfed in grief.
In a recent delegation to Amman, Jordan, US family members who lost loved ones in the conflict in Iraq came to the Middle East to meet with Iraqis who had lost loved ones. The delegation was sponsored by Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based human rights group, and Code Pink, a women’s peace activist group based in Los Angeles. The groups represented in the delegation were Military Families Speak Out and September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows.
Preceding reconciliation, the families shared stories of violence and suffering, particularly from Iraqis who face a daily battle of survival in the hell that has befallen their country under US occupation. A Shi’ite Muslim man spoke at the first meeting of the delegation. His brother was detained by soldiers last summer while giving a speech at the offices of the Human Rights Organization of Hilla.
“The Americans raided the place and made everyone lie down. They randomly shot nine people and injured them. Then they put two people on the wall and executed them by shooting them in the head. These were religious people. They then detained my brother and one other person,� he said.
After living under a brutal dictatorship for his entire life, now with the opportunity to tell the story of his brother to people from the country who now occupied his, he took the liberty of saying how things were even worse now for his people under US occupation, using his own brother as an example.
“I come from a family who were fighters against Saddam. Saddam discriminated against my family and our whole tribe. Thousands of us,� he said, “My brother is a sheikh, he is a religious man in Hilla. He used to make sermons during Saddam’s time against Saddam. He was detained for speaking against Saddam.�
He said his brother was suffering more in Abu Ghraib at the hands of the US military than when he was detained by the former regime. His family went months without being allowed to contact his brother, “They would not charge my brother with anything, and for three months they set appointments, then canceling them.�
His brother has now been detained for seven months, and he added, “After three months I met with him and he was paralyzed in his arm and leg, because he had been shot by a taser gun. They kept him in a small black box for many days.�
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