Revised US Checkpoint Procedures Reduce Iraqi Civilian Deaths

"US Troops Kill Fewer Iraqis after New Guidelines," by Alastair Macdonald - Reuters (Baghdad), 25 June 2006

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. troops have reduced the number of Iraqi civilians they kill after orders to improve checkpoint procedures following the shootings of some 350 Iraqis in such incidents last year, the military said on Sunday.

Figures in a briefing document provided by a U.S. spokesman in Baghdad showed that seven Iraqi civilians a week on average were reported killed in "escalation of force" (EOF) incidents in 2005. That dropped to four a week in January to one a week now.

"Just last week, 11-17 June, we had approximately 50 escalation of force incidents with only one injury in the entire country, just about the lowest level since we started tracking these incidents," Lieutenant Colonel Michelle Martin-Hing wrote.

U.S. officers had previously insisted in response to queries that no such statistics were compiled, although Martin-Hing said commanders began tracking such incidents in July last year.

With the newly formed Iraqi government publicly calling for U.S. troops to be held accountable following accusations that 24 people were killed by marines at Haditha, the military says it will ensure troops avoid killing civilians in all circumstances.

Twelve have been charged with murder in the past week alone. Another was charged with voluntary manslaughter on Sunday.

Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, who was appointed as the second-ranking U.S. commander in Iraq in January, is credited by fellow officers with seeking to tighten procedures to prevent alienating more of the population.

In April, the briefing note indicated, Chiarelli ordered senior commanders to investigate all serious casualties in EOF incidents -- typically those where soldiers manning checkpoints or driving in convoy mistake civilians for suicide bombers.

"This is to...see if we can identify trends that might help us further reduce the number," Martin-Hing said.

"All of these initiatives are designed to keep us from creating additional enemies that we would have to fight by alienating the local population," he added.

Chiarelli also stresses that troops must respect cultural sensitivities when searching homes and detaining suspects as well as insisting on quick reparations for injuries or damage.

Since the U.S. invasion three years ago, shootings by U.S. troops have been a source of complaint among Iraqis, despite repeated attempts to ensure both civilians and troops are aware of the procedures to follow and danger signs to monitor.

New efforts were being made to inform Iraqis of checkpoint and convoy procedures and to train troops, the briefing note said. Soldiers were also being given new equipment, including lasers, to attract drivers' attention without opening fire....

For some background, see US Uses 'Less Brute Force,' 'More Hearts and Minds' in Iraq and Iraqi PM Criticizes Checkpoint Procedures (look especially for quotes from former Marine Nathaniel Flick's 13 March 2005 NYT op-ed about the possibilities of improving communication between soldiers manning checkpoints and civilian drivers). Also see see Iraqi Journalist Reported Killed by US Fire for quotes from a joint HRW-CPJ letter to Sec. of Defense Rumsfeld that appealed for a re-thinking of checkpoint procedures.

Comments

[Raid Mohammad]

I have been talking about this for more than tree years. Please read the article below.

Austin American-Statesman (Texas)
February 29, 2004, Sunday
SECTION: Metro/State; Pg. B1

LENGTH: 829 words

HEADLINE: Austinite aims to help Iraq rebuild
Trip to native land reveals cultural chasm, desperate needs, dangers

BYLINE: Eileen E. Flynn, AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

BODY:
Baghdad's nighttime silence haunted Raid Mohammad as he lay in his hotel room bed.

"In the evening, once the sun sets, it's like a ghost town," he said. "It's really a very eerie feeling."

Then the occasional gunshots rang out, and Mohammad thought about the telephone. There was no service at the hotel or in most homes in the area. "What would you do if something happened?" he wondered.

This was post-war Iraq. This was also Mohammad's home, which he had not visited since the U.S.-led invasion last year. In November he traveled through the country for several weeks. He stayed with friends and relatives, talked to military officials and local leaders, and tried to visualize Iraq's future.

Mohammad returned to Austin, where he has lived for 10 years, depressed
and troubled. "It was like hell on Earth," he said.

Still, he plans to go back to Iraq in April, convinced that he can, in some way, play a part in the reshaping of his homeland.

Many Iraqis abroad and in the United States are worried about their country's future. To them, Iraq is not some distant place, a vaguely conceived war zone. Nor is it fodder for political debate, a key issue that may decide an election.

Mohammad's Iraq is specific: street names, storefronts, faces of friends. And, as a Shiite Muslim, he has a special place of pilgrimage there: Karbala, where Husayn, the grandson of Islam's prophet Mohammed, was martyred in 680. Shiite Muslims gathered there last week.

But these are not the details, Mohammad said, that U.S. military and political leaders seek to learn. The cultural chasm is wide, he said. "Iraqis have no idea how to deal with (Americans)," he said. "Nor do Americans have any idea how to deal with Iraqis."

Thus far, the Coalition Provisional Authority, Iraq's temporary governing body designated by the United Nations, has not demonstrated an ability to bridge that divide, said Juan Cole, professor of modern Middle Eastern and South Asian history at the University of Michigan. He tracks the situation in Iraq and other parts of the Middle East daily in a Web log. The provisional authority, Cole said, needs more Arabic speakers and people who are familiar with the Iraqi culture.

Cultural differences aren't the only problems, Mohammad said. He painted a discouraging picture: hours-long traffic jams and lines for gasoline, inconsistent electricity and telephone service, a scarcity of jobs and rough treatment by the military.

Rumors swirl of missing valuables after military inspections of homes, he said. While driving throughout the country, Mohammad found road blocks and patrol motorcades were often not clearly marked, leaving drivers vulnerable to fire from anxious soldiers on alert for suicide
bombers.

"They should be marked better," he said. "The simplest things could be done to save people's lives."

Resentment toward the military is building, Mohammad said, even among those who initially celebrated Saddam's ouster.

Cole agreed. "In this Shiite south, most people are really, really glad that Saddam is gone," he said. "They have a certain amount of gratitude to the United States for getting rid of him. They don't like being occupied; none of them do. There is an underlying hostility about being occupied."

Part of the difficulty in understanding post-war Iraq, Cole noted, is the mixed reports about conditions there. He relies on media sources from around the world and reads many papers in Arabic. "The problem is that the situation is very ambiguous," he said. "It's possible to read the evidence in more than one way."

Mohammad said he feels conflicted. On one hand, he had reason to despise Saddam. He blames the former dictator's henchmen for the death of his father, a prominent journalist, in 1981. "I think Saddam's being out of the picture is the best thing that could have happened to Iraq," he said.

But toppling the regime is not enough, Mohammad stressed. Traveling from Baghdad to the border of Turkey, he said, "I did not see a single thing that I could point my finger and say, 'That's an improvement.' "

Mohammad's battered passport is testament to the 1.6 million miles he's logged traveling the world since 1995.

His experiences, he said, give him a perspective on global events that many Americans don't have. And as strong as his ties are to Iraq, he is eager to point out that he wants what's best for the United States, which is the only home his wife and children know.

He worries about the growing anti-U.S. sentiment abroad and about the debt his children will inherit from the war in Iraq. And he's not sure that a political change will solve the problem.

"On the one hand, I hate to see Bush go because Bush is more obligated to do something about Iraq," he said. "But at the same time, I think Bush and his cronies are doing a lot of damage to this country. The problem is there's no single solution to Iraq right now."

--------------------
Eileen E. Flynn
Religion Reporter
Austin American-Statesman
305 S. Congress Ave.
Austin, Texas 78704
Ph: 512-445-3812
Fax: 512-445-1736

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