- "The United States Army attempts to repay damages
that it may have caused by accident that are not related to combat directly
or indirectly."
-
- - First line of US Army Compensation Request Form
-
- Hayda Hakeem grips the wheel of the beat up white and
orange Passat he rents to use as a taxi. Inside we talk with him as we
head to the CPA for another highly controlled occupation press conference
in the CPIC. I notice two of his fingers are stubs, shaking as he grips
the steering wheel as we rattle down the street.
-
- "I have just returned to Iraq after spending 14
years in an Iranian prison because I fought in that war," he says,
"I am saddened to see this country now compared to how much better
it was when I left it-even during a time of war."
-
- He pays the owner of the car a slice of what he makes,
as he cannot afford his own vehicle.
-
- Hayda Hakeem continues,
-
- "I have to support my two handicapped sisters, since
they have no medical support anymore. We have no heater. It is cold at
night. Our parents died while I was in the prison in Iran."
-
- When we arrive at the CPIC, I try to give him some extra
money on top of the fare we'd negotiated. He doesn't want to take it, so
I thrust it in his hand and quickly shut the door. It isn't much, but it
is better than nothing, as I have heard countless terrible stories of Iraqis
just trying get food and stay warm at night.
-
- With the infrastructure still in shambles, the rationed
petrol, continuing rising unemployment (over 60% now), and the end of the
military occupation nowhere in sight, I continually wonder how Iraqis are
getting by.
-
- The stories of people killed, wounded, or disenfranchised
in Iraq are endless. Almost every day that I have been here at least one
person or family that has found out I am a journalist writing about how
the occupation and illegal invasion are effecting Iraqis has approached
me, desperate for someone to hear their story. While they hope I can help
them, the little act I can do is to simply journal the injustice, and hope
that readers will hold their government accountable for the travesty which
is occurring in Iraq on a daily basisÖand only growing worse with
time.
-
- While Mr. Bush speaks of sending Americans to the Moon
and Mars, countless Iraqis in the country his military currently occupies
are starving and freezing.
-
- Speaking with Hayda Hakeem reminded me of a couple of
examples I have investigated of people here being afflicted, directly and/or
indirectly, of the wars and illegal sanctions that have tortured Iraq.
-
- One of these is a man named Ayad Hashim. He worked as
an engineer prior to the Anglo-American Invasion, and now works as a taxi
driver in an attempt to feed his family of five. This is the only work
he can find now due to the horrendous unemployment situation.
-
- He had been saving money for a long time and was building
his first home for his family in the Al Saidia area of Baghdad, which incurred
great damaged by US troops shortly after the Invasion. He knew to contact
the CPA and an Iraqi lawyer to handle his claim for destruction of his
property.
-
- "All the damage was caused by the US Army. The Army
was using my house for watching people, for different jobs, for sleeping
inside. While they did this they destroyed my home."
-
- Mr. Hashim states that he is fully aware that things
like this occur during times of war, he is angry at the fact that he has
yet to receive one Iraqi Dinar of compensation even though this occurred
after George Bush declared major combat operations to be over in Iraq.
-
- The actions the Army lists for Iraqis to take in order
to properly file their claim are nearly impossible for most Iraqis, particularly
those living in more rural areas. It requests exactly the following, which
I reprint verbatim from the document:
-
- - Proof of ownership of the property in question.
-
- - Medical bills/Doctors written assessment of the injury.
-
- - Additional witness statements.
-
- - Proof of negligence of US Soldiers (statement of soldier,
or identifying unit)
-
- - Two written estimates of damages by a certified repair
shop, engineer, auto dealer, or other professional as required by the nature
of your claim.
-
- - Requested amount in US dollars and Iraqi Dinar.
-
- - Exact date and time of accident.
-
- - Proof of Identity.
-
- - Agency agreement.
-
- - Death certificate (if applicable).
-
- - Address and phone number where you can be reached.
-
- These claims must then be filed within 30 days of the
attack/damages/death. For starters, proof of ownership has become a tricky
business with the new CPA. Many people have run into problems as this new
administrations isn't always acknowledging a proof of ownership certificate
from Saddam's regime.
-
- Secondly, most people in Iraq can ill afford to visit
a doctor to get a written assessment. Getting written estimates of damages
is again a problem because most people cannot afford to have this done,
as well as the fact that ëcertifiedí repair shops or 'auto
dealers' are almost non-existent in Iraq.
-
- Phones pose another problem-unless a person is among
the very rich select few in Iraq, most people here do not have a phone
with which to be contacted, and oftentimes when their homes are destroyed,
neither do they have an address where they can be reached as many of these
families are now on the street.
-
- Yet Mr. Hashim was able to produce all of which the Army
asked for. He presented me with his folder complete with all of the aforementioned
requests-documents, titles, certificates, witness statements, photos. He
had it all.
-
- "I contacted the CPA, gave them my photos and documents
they requested."
-
- A portion of the response he received from his claim
is as follows:
-
- "Your claim is denied. The FCA (Foreign Claims Act)
requires proof of negligent or wrongful acts on the part of U.S. government
employees. Accordingly, there is no evidence of negligence on the part
of U.S. government employees."
-
- Mr. Hashim submitted three different signed testimony
papers from witnesses of the destruction of his home by three people. He
submitted photos, bills, testimony, certifications of proof and authenticity.
Apparently doing everything the CPA asks of you still does not guarantee
that you will be compensated.
-
- Perhaps it is the line at the top of the compensation
forms which states,
-
- "The United States Army attempts to repay damages
that it may have caused by accident that are not related to combat directly
or indirectly."
-
- Does this mean that intentional damages are not covered?
-
- And which damages that have been caused by the US military
in Iraq, exactly, are NOT related to combat directly or indirectly?
-
- Jasem Hamza Al-Jbure works as a journalist for Alef-Ba
Magazine in Baghdad. He and his family live in Al Shahab district in north
Baghdad. In the middle of last May, after the ëwarí had ended,
US troops broke into his home at 5:30am. The soldiers ordered the family,
who were clothed only in underwear, to stand in the garage at gunpoint
as the soldiers searched through their home.
-
- While this was happening a soldier standing outside the
home fired his weapon at the home, breaking several windows and damaging
a guardrail near some stairs.
-
- The soldiers left him a scribbled piece of torn paper
admitting to damaging his home. Being a prideful man, Mr. Al-Jbure will
not go ask the CPA for money.
-
- "I refuse to go and beg the Americans for money
for destruction that they caused my home. They embarrassed my wife and
daughters by pulling them from their beds, broke my windows, and now they
won't come to apologize and pay me. Why? And now they wonder why more Iraqi
people want them out of our country."
-
- In Muslim society it is extremely rude to enter someoneís
home, even a good friend or relative, without first asking permission.
Now, on a daily basis all over Iraq, US soldiers completely disregard this
important custom-many of them are most likely unaware they are even doing
so. Yet the damage being caused by this ignorance is being done, and the
effects will be more evident as time progresses.
-
- Mr. Al-Jbure went on to tell me that US soldiers did
this throughout his neighborhood. Neither he, nor any of his neighbors
know why, as they never knew of any resistance fighters there.
-
- He wanted me to know, as a fellow journalist, that newspapers
in Iraq are struggling because fewer and fewer Iraqis read them because
they feel it is all CPA propaganda.
-
- "There are no independent newspapers in Iraq because
this is not a free country, nor do we have democracy. Writers should have
freedom to dissent, and we donít have that anymore with the CPA
than we did under Saddam."
-
- Because of the damage to his home, and his feelings about
how Iraq is no better off now under US control, he wants the Americans
gone.
-
- The U.S. military has paid out nearly $2 million to Iraqi
civilians who have complained to Coalition authorities that their family
members were wrongfully killed. But because U.S. forces are immune from
prosecution in Iraq courts, "commanders make payments from their discretionary
funds, rarely even admitting liability," according to the UK Guardian.
"Payouts average just a few hundred dollars and in some cases families
have been asked to sign forms waiving their right to press for further
compensation. In one area of south-western Baghdad, controlled by the 82nd
Airborne Division, an officer said a total of $106,000 had been paid out
to 176 claimants since July."
-
- The CPA does have an official "human rights"
bureau. It's called the "Office of Human Rights and Transitional Justice."
It's located behind four heavily fortified military checkpoints, in the
basement of the Baghdad convention center right down the hall from Bechtel.
Iraqis can go there to file human rights claims. To qualify the abuse had
to occur between February 1963 and April 2003, the years of Baath Party
rule.
-
- Is this a reflection of the situation concerning compensation
for wrongful damages?
-
- There is no information about the US Military or CPA
payment of compensation to Iraqis who have had homes or belongings damaged
by the occupation forces on any of their websites.
-
- Phone calls to the CPA requesting such information have
not been returned.
-
- (Read more of Dhar's superb reporting from Iraq in his
Columnist Archive on the left side of our homepage. -ed)
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