http://vitw.org/archives/873#more-873Out of Control
April 5, 2005 | category: Recent Updates | Voices from Iraq | Cliff Kindy
By Cliff Kindy
Christian Peacemaker Teams
Recently world media carried the story about the U.S. shooting of an Italian kidnap victim and her security guard. At the same time, a Bulgarian soldier died as U.S. forces opened fire from a checkpoint. These stories made the news, but the regular incidents of Iraqis injured in similar circumstances often remain unpublicized.
An Iraqi friend asked me to visit his cousin. Lafta Rahim, 39, who has four children, was at home in his bed. Immediately his smile drew me as we met. Then I noticed contraptions on his body. His upper left arm had an 8-inch rod parallel to the bone, attached with six pins and two clamps. His lower right leg had a similar rod, this one with five pins and five clamps. Bullets had shattered both bones.
Lafta told his story.
On January 7, 2005 at about 6:00PM, he and a companion were on their way to visit a friend. As they passed some university buildings, shots rang out. The barrage of weapons fire stopped his car. It had 52 bullet holes in it. Eight bullets lodged in Lafta’s body and five in his companion’s body.
The attack came from a U.S. convoy driving out of university buildings that had become a U.S. base. Apparently, an unknown person fired shots at the buildings from across the road. The convoy responded, but aimed its fire randomly at the innocent passing vehicles.
Lafta’s car was not alone on the street, but was last in a line of four cars. The convoy shot his car from behind, but still five people in the other cars died and fifteen were injured.
I asked if the soldiers stopped to assist when they saw what had happened. My friend interrupted, “I was returning from Jordan a week ago. A driver parked his GMC along the road to use the bathroom at the gas station. He returned to see that his empty car had been sprayed with bullets from a passing U.S. convoy. The soldiers kept moving.”
Lafta replied to the original question. “The soldiers did not stop, but two young people took me to the hospital.” He continued, “The bad things Saddam Hussein was doing, now the U.S. is doing. They give us no help.”
He and four brothers manufacture metal frames for windows and doors. He has good family support and has had a good job. Now he is unable to work because he is unable to move the fingers in his left hand
Lafta has a nicely trimmed beard and moustache and a friendly shine in his eyes. His brother had asked a U.S. army officer, “Why did you shoot civilians?” The officer responded, “We have in our army too many people acting irrationally.”
It is not clear whether incidents of uncontrolled U.S. shooting at checkpoints or from convoys arise from fear, training, or lack of training. But Lafta’s story represents dozens of others CPTers have encountered, both directly from victims and from security reports and Iraqi news. Something is out of control.
Christian Peacemaker Teams is an ecumenical violence-reduction program with roots in the historic peace churches. Teams of trained peace workers live in areas of lethal conflict around the world. CPT has been present in Iraq since October, 2002. To learn more about CPT, please visit www.cpt.org. Photos of CPT projects may be viewed at www.cpt.org/gallery
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