Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Row over rape leads to further sectarian political tensions
Security, Politics
(AFP) - Allegations that a squad of Iraqi policemen enforcing a new Baghdad security plan took turns to rape a young Sunni woman have fed sectarian tensions at the summit of the Iraqi government. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office dismissed the woman's complaint out of hand Tuesday, and accused Sunni politicians of exploiting the drama to undermine a joint US-Iraqi operation to quell factional fighting in the capital.
But an aide to
Iraq's Sunni vice president denounced the Shiite premier's response, and claimed initial medical tests carried out at a hospital run by the American military showed that the woman had been sexually assaulted. The rape allegation surfaced on Monday when a Sunni religious body accused police of raping a woman called Sabrin al-Janabi, who repeated the charge herself in an interview with the satellite television network Al-Jazeera.
"One of them hit me. I fell and my head hit the ground," the alleged victim -- the report described her as a 20-year-old married woman -- said in the television interview, speaking from behind a traditional Islamic veil. "One of them raped me. Then another came and raped, and a third. I was screaming, crying and begging them, but he held my mouth so no-one could hear," she continued, calmly but with eyes moist with tears. "Someone came and said to them, 'Are you done? Can we come and take our turn?' But one of them said, 'No, there's an American patrol coming'."
The woman said she was brought before a judge to be arraigned, then taken back by police, raped again, beaten on the thigh with a rubber hose and threatened that she would be killed if she made a complaint.
Maliki's office initially promised a full inquiry then, just four hours later, issued a second statement formally denying the allegations and ordering that the accused officers be commended. "The aim of this fabrication by some known groups is to sow confusion about the security plan and tarnish the reputation of our forces which are tracking terrorist organisations and working to stabilize Baghdad," it said.
The rape row strikes a blow against Maliki's attempts to portray the security plan as even handed, after a series of bomb attacks on Shiite targets undermined early successes in cutting the murder rate. Omar Jaburi, Vice President Tareq al Hashemi's adviser on human rights, said he had been put in charge of the dossier and denounced the statement by Maliki's office as "false" and an attempt to mislead the media.
After she was taken to an Iraqi base, US soldiers arrived and, when she alleged that she had been raped, they transferred her to a hospital overseen by the US military in the fortified Green Zone, Jaburi told AFP. "The initial hospital report confirmed what she had said," Jaburi claimed. "A panel of medical experts is reviewing the evidence, we expect them to report tonight. The hospital is overseen by US forces and is neutral." A spokesman for the US military, Lieutenant Colonel Chris Garver, said: "We've seen the reports. I can't confirm anything at this time."
But an aide to
Iraq's Sunni vice president denounced the Shiite premier's response, and claimed initial medical tests carried out at a hospital run by the American military showed that the woman had been sexually assaulted. The rape allegation surfaced on Monday when a Sunni religious body accused police of raping a woman called Sabrin al-Janabi, who repeated the charge herself in an interview with the satellite television network Al-Jazeera.
"One of them hit me. I fell and my head hit the ground," the alleged victim -- the report described her as a 20-year-old married woman -- said in the television interview, speaking from behind a traditional Islamic veil. "One of them raped me. Then another came and raped, and a third. I was screaming, crying and begging them, but he held my mouth so no-one could hear," she continued, calmly but with eyes moist with tears. "Someone came and said to them, 'Are you done? Can we come and take our turn?' But one of them said, 'No, there's an American patrol coming'."
The woman said she was brought before a judge to be arraigned, then taken back by police, raped again, beaten on the thigh with a rubber hose and threatened that she would be killed if she made a complaint.
Maliki's office initially promised a full inquiry then, just four hours later, issued a second statement formally denying the allegations and ordering that the accused officers be commended. "The aim of this fabrication by some known groups is to sow confusion about the security plan and tarnish the reputation of our forces which are tracking terrorist organisations and working to stabilize Baghdad," it said.
The rape row strikes a blow against Maliki's attempts to portray the security plan as even handed, after a series of bomb attacks on Shiite targets undermined early successes in cutting the murder rate. Omar Jaburi, Vice President Tareq al Hashemi's adviser on human rights, said he had been put in charge of the dossier and denounced the statement by Maliki's office as "false" and an attempt to mislead the media.
After she was taken to an Iraqi base, US soldiers arrived and, when she alleged that she had been raped, they transferred her to a hospital overseen by the US military in the fortified Green Zone, Jaburi told AFP. "The initial hospital report confirmed what she had said," Jaburi claimed. "A panel of medical experts is reviewing the evidence, we expect them to report tonight. The hospital is overseen by US forces and is neutral." A spokesman for the US military, Lieutenant Colonel Chris Garver, said: "We've seen the reports. I can't confirm anything at this time."
Labels: al-Maliki, rape, Sabrin al-Janabi
