arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Caoimhe Butterly, Iraq Peace Team - Baghdad, 29 April 2003

An Iraqi killed during an anti-U.S. protest is buried in a Falluja cemetery, 30 miles west of Baghdad, April 29, 2003. According to witnesses, U.S. troops shot dead at least 13 Iraqis during the protests. (Ruben Sprich/Reuters)
The road to Faluja is strewn with discarded tanks and burned out cars and palm groves whose depth of green contrasts strikingly with the parched earth leading out of Baghdad.

Its atmosphere, upon entry, is markedly different from that of Baghdad. The American military presence is much less pronounced, and there is a marked absence of foreign press. Faluja, it seems, is not bleeding enough to lead.

Passing by children bathing in a river set aglow by the setting sun, families returning home from the fields, groups of old men heading to prayer, we make our way to Faluja General Hospital, whose morgue last night served as temporary home for the bodies of ten men, a young woman and a ten year old boy. The influx of the 37 wounded has ceased, the blood now cleaned from the floors, the mourning keening woman brought home. The anger, however is still here.

Its presence cannot be dealt with by the hospital staff as efficiently as they patched up, with limited pain killers, surgical equipment, blood bags, and IV lines, the 37 people who were carried into them from 10pm onwards last night -- all shot with 50mm high caliber bullets -- blowing off legs, ripping open abdominal cavities, shattering bones, tearing through muscles. Searing anger, distrust and pain onto a community's collective memory.

"They are sick. They are deeply, deeply sick. Tell the Americans we don't believe in this freedom," says an elderly man. His comment is one of the many of the crowd that surround us yelling their pain and anger -- demanding an explanation, a response -- "Why?"

"Why do they insist on continuing to massacre our people -- how much more blood do they want?"

"Show them, show the world, tell them the truth."

Later, we move on, to the school occupied by the American military for the past week. It is here that -- we are told -- a non-violent, orderly demonstration to the school took place last night. All those interviewed, all those crowded outside the school now, insist that the official US version is false. They gathered peacefully, and marched peacefully, past the mosque through a residential area to the barbed wire coils that surround the occupied school.

The American troops are packing up as we arrive. This is not a media stunt -- the media have come and gone -- a constant traffic, all day, through the hospital. Pictures taken, grief and loss encapsulated into palatable sound bites. This withdrawal is tactical. The public relations campaign of a benign occupation will be difficult to maintain if there are any follow-ups to this particular massacre, if there are charges pressed by the families, or by the brothers who were hit by stray bullets inside their house.

If there, that is, there is ever an investigation into the legitimacy of the official army version of events.

It will become difficult, if there can be, in Falluja, a focal center for people's anger and frustration, an occupied school, snipers pointing guns at people entering and exited the mosque. It is easier for everyone if the soldiers slip off into the night, avoiding the scrutiny, the fixed eye of accountability which must be a factor in any "liberated" and "democratic" country.

So they do slip off into the night -- and, not recognizing us as their armoured cars and trucks pass our car on a dark highway to Baghdad, American soldiers pump their fists into the air for our cameras, giving us the victory sign.

Liberation -- an ephemeral, passing phenomena has come and gone in Falluja. It came, sat uncomfortably for a week -- without translators, cultural or historical sensibility -- brought a temporary horde of journalists to record its only lasting impression on a community: that of violence, and pain, and loss and then left.

Falluja, we learn later from a BBC reporter, has always been "anti-American". This should, and will, nullify or calm any murmurings of distrust abroad as to what lies ahead.

Caoimhe Butterly is an Irish peace activist with the Iraq Peace Team in Baghdad - http://www.iraqpeaceteam.org

Bush Credibility Dented As 15 Shot Dead At Iraqi School

Big News Network.com Wednesday 30th April, 2003

Less than a day after President Bush criticized Saddam Hussein for using Iraqi schools to store military equipment and arms, U.S. forces occupied an elementary school in the town of Falluja, 30 miles west of Baghdad.

Within hours the local Iraqi children, aged between 5 and 20, according to witnesses, were protesting the occupation, and demanding their school back.

Iraqi witnesses say the children began throwing stones, and in response the U.S. forces opened fire, killing 15, and injuring scores of others.

Dr Ahmed Ghanim al-Ali, director of Fallujah General Hospital, said the dead included three boys under 11 years old. He said his medical crews were shot at when they went to retrieve the injured, which he said numbered 75.

U.S. forces on the scene disputed local accounts, and said some in the crowd had AK-47s, and they fired first.

The matter is being investigated by U.S. Central Command, but the official, initial response, was that the forces had no choice but to defend themselves against attack. Countering the official response is the high casualty count amongst the Iraqi civilians of 15 dead, and up to 75 injured, whereas U.S. forces did not sustain any casualties.

Why the school was chosen to headquarter the U.S. forces is unknown, but it is ironical that the U.S. president, some thousands of miles away makes statements, promises, and pronouncements that in reality have little relation to what is happening on the ground in Iraq.

Addressing Iraqi-Americans in Dearborn, Michigan, on Monday Mr. Bush said, "We're working to improve Iraqi schools by funding a back to school campaign, that will help train and recruit Iraqi teachers, provide supplies and equipment, and bring children across Iraq back into clean and safe schools. And as we do that, we will make sure that the schools are no longer used as military arsenals and bunkers", Mr. Bush said.