U.S. Military Called On to Compensate Iraqi Civilians
by Haider Rizvi
NEW YORK - U.S.-based humanitarian groups are urging the administration of President George W. Bush to compensate the families of innocent Iraqi citizens killed as a result of aerial bombings by the U.S. military.
The call comes after U.S. military officials admitted that they had mistakenly bombed a civilian residence in the northern Iraqi town of Baiji over a week ago. The air raid that killed at least six people in their home prompted widespread anger among local communities.
"When mistakes happen, we have a responsibility to help the victims and their loved ones," said Sarah Holewinsky, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign for Innocent Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC).
The group urged a thorough investigation of the Baiji incident so that assistance can be provided to surviving family members, citing a $38 million fund created by the U.S. Congress in 2003 to help civilian victims of war in Iraq and Afghanistan and named after CIVIC's late founder, Marla Ruzicka, who was killed in a suicide bombing in Iraq last April.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0116-04.htm"Out of 50 so-called "decapitation strikes" against members of Saddam Hussein's regime, none were hit, the group said, but 40 civilians were killed because planners relied on rough Global Positioning System locations derived from satellite phones." 2005 report, Human Rights Watch