28 February 2007
JOURNALISTS' UNION RAIDED, TWO REPORTERS KILLED, MARTIAL LAW IMPOSED IN BAGHDAD
Security forces ransacked a journalists' union office during a major operation by U.S and Iraqi forces in Baghdad in February, according to several IFEX members, and two journalists' deaths were reported. Earlier in the month, martial law was decreed in the capital city.
Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans Frontières, RSF) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemned a 19 February 2007 raid by U.S. and Iraqi military units on the Baghdad offices of the Union of Iraqi Journalists, during which shots were fired, the offices ransacked and the union's 10 security guards arrested.
A U.S. army mobile unit fired on the union's headquarters after seeing armed guards, RSF stated. However, the guards did not behave in an aggressive or threatening manner toward the soldiers. Members of the Iraqi army then stormed onto the premises, disarmed and detained the guards and seized the union's computer equipment. The IFJ, to which the journalists' union belongs, said the soldiers also confiscated 10 computers and 15 small electricity generators destined for the families of killed journalists.
U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said the raid was not conducted by American forces, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The journalists' union demanded an apology for the raid, which it said involved U.S. troops accompanied by a translator, AP said. The union also demanded compensation for furniture and other equipment broken during the raid.
Meanwhile, RSF reported the deaths of two journalists in the past week. Hussein Al Subaydi, with the weekly "al-Ahali", was killed by gunmen in unclear circumstances in Baghdad on 19 February. The bullet-riddled body of Abderrasak Hashim Al-Khakani, a journalist with radio Jumhuriyat Al Iraq, was identified in a Baghdad morgue a day later. He had been kidnapped the previous week in the east Baghdad neighbourhood of al-Jihad, RSF said.
Earlier in the month, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki granted military commanders in Baghdad sweeping powers to arrest people and restrict their freedoms of speech and association, Human Rights Watch reported. On 13 February, General Qanbar Hashim, commander of Baghdad operations, announced martial law powers giving military commanders far-reaching powers to conduct warrantless arrests, monitor private communications, and restrict civil society groups in Baghdad. The decree also extended Baghdad's curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily.
The vaguely worded decree provides few details on how the regulations will be implemented, and includes no time limits for most of its provisions, Human Rights Watch said.
Visit these sites:
- IFEX:
http://ifex.org/en/content/view/full/81375/- IFJ:
http://www.ifj.org/default.asp?Index=4652&Language=EN- RSF:
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=21093- AP:
http://tinyurl.com/2xk945- IFEX:
http://ifex.org/en/content/view/full/81374/