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| Iraq |
| Iraqi deserters tell of beatings, executions by superiors |
| 2003-04-07 |
| Deserters from the Iraqi army say they were beaten by their superiors and one says he saw 10 fellow soldiers executed by a commander, according to a Human Rights Watch report. Some of the 26 soldiers interviewed by the group said officers frequently warned of executions if they tried to escape, telling them during air strikes to stand fast and "die like men." On March 26, six days after the start of the war, 10 deserters were brought to an open field where a colonel had gathered other units, according to one of the deserters. "This is what happens to betrayers of our nation," the officers told the assembled troops, according to the witness. He then began shooting the men one by one, and other members of the execution squad joined in. The bodies were dragged onto a hillside so the soldiers would have a better view of the corpses, the witness said. Other deserters have described security cordons of minefields and radar detectors around barracks to restrain potential deserters. They have also said execution units have been created by members of the ruling Baath Party, military security officers and the Iraqi intelligence service. In its report issued Friday, Human Rights Watch estimated there were as many as 130 Iraqi deserters in custody of the Kurdish Democratic Party in Irbil province as of last Wednesday. The deserters who were interviewed by Human Rights Watch were men, between 20 and 38. They said they went for months without pay. "Some days we were so hungry we would eat grass which we mixed with a little water," said a 21-year-old soldier from Baghdad. A 29-year-old soldier from Baghdad described an intense bombardment by coalition forces, and how he and others fled to Kurdish-controlled territory. "There were six of us," he told Human Rights Watch. "We were afraid because there was talk of execution squads among the soldiers. ... At two o'clock in the morning, we crept away unnoticed and walked for four hours until we reached the Kurdish areas. The Peshmerga welcomed us." |
| Posted by:a325th505thdad |
| #2 |
| Posted by: Dee Bates 2003-04-07 11:23:06 |
| #1 |
| Posted by: Steve White 2003-04-07 01:55:36 |