Sunday, July 18, 2004

Investigating Allawi

Iraq's Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin is opening an investigation into allegations that Iraqi PM Iyad Allawi murdered six detainees in cold blood days prior to the "transfer of power" in late June:
 

Mr Amin described the allegation as very serious, referring to reports in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, sourced to two unnamed men, that Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi had personally executed at least six suspected insurgents in Baghdad last month.

 
Former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook is calling for the International Committee for the Red Cross to open an independent investigation:
 

"These are dreadful allegations. It is vital that they are cleared up one way or another, and that needs an independent inquiry," Mr Cook, who quit the Blair cabinet over the Iraq war, told the British newspaper the Sunday Herald. "An international body such as the Red Cross would be best able to give authority to the investigation that the situation now demands."

 
Here are three questions that the Red Cross and Mr. Amin should ask:

  1. Were Ahmed Abdulah Ahsamey, Amer Lutfi Mohammed Ahmed al-Kutsia, and Walid Mehdi Ahmed al-Samarrai ever detained by Iraqi or coalition authorities?
  2. Were these three men ever detained at the Al-Amariyah security centre in the southwestern suburbs of Baghdad?
  3. Where are Ahmed Abdulah Ahsamey, Amer Lutfi Mohammed Ahmed al-Kutsia, and Walid Mehdi Ahmed al-Samarrai today?

UPDATE:  Questions begin to be raised about why the US media is ignoring the story.