Fallujah: Shock and Awe

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Fallujah: Shock and Awe

Denial of Water to Iraqi Cities

Ken Coates – Editorial: The Spokesman no.84, Journal of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation

It was on April 26, 1937, that the name of Guernica was immortalised. A little town, home to 7,000 people, Guernica was the local market place for a cluster of hill villages. It straddled a valley only ten kilometres from the sea, and thirty from Bilbao. It was a cultural centre for the Basque country, with a hallowed oak tree upon which for centuries the public power in Spain has been obliged recurrently to affirm an oath to respect the rights of the Basque people.

April 26 was a Monday, market day. It went ahead peaceably, although the Civil War was raging thirty kilometres away. The air raid was not announced (by an urgent call from the Church bells) until half past four in the afternoon. Ten minutes later Heinkels arrived, scattering their bombs across the town, and then machine gunning the streets. Following the Heinkels came the Junkers. The German Air Force was celebrating a major practice run. When the people ran away, they, too, were machine-gunned. One thousand six hundred and fifty-four people were killed, and eight hundred and eighty-nine were wounded. The town centre was destroyed, and Europe received its first baptism of aerial bombardment on a modern scale.

The shock reverberated far beyond the Basque country. Spain was not a remote colony like Iraq, from which news could take an age to travel. Within a week Picasso began his painting, his masterpiece which is at present installed in a special gallery attached to the Prado. In preparation for this, he feverishly prepared a desperately poignant series of sketches and cartoons, one of which we feature on our cover. Picasso gave us a portrait of naked horror. Europe was soon to learn the face of that horror at first hand. It is said that when some German officers visited Picasso in his studio in occupied France, they said of Guernica, drawings from which were hung in the room, "Did you do this?" The master is said to have replied: "No, you did".

But it was not only the German Air Force which tore away at the fabric of European cities. Coventry and London pale into insignificance when compared with Hamburg and Dresden. It was an American soldier, Kurt Vonnegut, who was to create a memorial to Dresden, in his extraordinary work Slaughterhouse Five. Slaughterhouses, since, we have seen in profusion. Before the incineration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there was the massive "conventional" air raid on Tokyo which killed many tens of thousands of people. Then we lived through the Cold War, and the nuclear arms race, until we entered, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, into the age of Full Spectrum Dominance from Washington. Now the centre of that domination sits in Iraq, and for the time being the carnage radiates out from the city of Falluja.

We are told that Falluja had to be destroyed, in order to carry out elections to an Iraqi constituent assembly on January 27, 2005. We will see whether any elections take place. There are those among us who doubt whether such elections were actually intended in any more than a fictional exit strategy for the purposes of another election, in the United States. Mr Bush has won that, and may not need the one in Iraq. It is greatly to be doubted whether the conditions for an election exist in the aftermath of the destruction of Falluja.

Kofi Annan warned Bush, Blair, and their puppet, Iyad Allawi, that elections required "a broader spectrum of Iraqis to join the political process" and the persuasion of "elements who are currently alienated from, or sceptical about, the transition process". He expressed his "increasing concern at the prospect of an escalation in violence, which I fear could be very disruptive for Iraq’s political transition".

Kofi Annan was entirely specific.

"I have in mind not only the risk of increased insurgent violence, but also reports of major military offensives being planned by the multinational force in key localities such as Falluja. I wish to express to you my particular concern about the safety and protection of civilians. Fighting is likely to take place mostly in densely populated urban areas, with an obvious risk of civilian casualties … The threat or actual use of force not only risks deepening the sense of alienation of certain communities, but would also reinforce perceptions among the Iraqi population of a continued military occupation."

Guernica was struck down out of a clear sky, and none of the victims expected it. But Falluja was planned in great detail for months before the culmination of the American election made it possible to risk the criticism of domestic public opinion. Indeed the British allies were redeployed to seal off what was eloquently described as the "rat run" from Falluja, in spite of the consternation in Scotland, whose Black Watch soldiers were put at very dire risk. All that took time. It took time, up to two months, to cut off the water supplies to Tall Afar, Samarra, and Falluja. We publish in our dossier a careful report by Cambridge Solidarity with Iraq, which describes how this was done, in breach of international humanitarian law, and without consultation with any of the allies. Towards the end of a week of remorseless bombing and bombardment, the Red Crescent succeeded in sending a convoy of food and medicines into the outskirts of Falluja. American forces denied them the right to move beyond a hospital on the outskirts of the town.

As happened before, during the invasion by coalition forces, news has been comprehensively and carefully managed, so that we cannot tell what the true level of casualties has been. At the end of the first week, the Americans were reported as having sustained 38 deaths and to have suffered 275 other casualties. They also claim to have killed, variously, 1000 or 1600 insurgents and to have captured between 450 and 550 others. But the insurgents claim vastly smaller casualties. Al-Dulaimi said that the number of Falluja’s defenders, "martyrs who were killed", did not exceed 100. "We lost 15 of our men," he said. Nobody, but nobody, can offer any credible figures about the civilian death toll. We shall not be able to calculate anything approaching the true mortality for some time, just as it took more than a year before The Lancet was able to publish research about the true human cost of the occupation.

What is absolutely clear is that large swathes of Falluja have been literally pulverised, ground to powder by the kind of destructive machine that Hermann Goering could hardly imagine. Just as we do not know how many innocents have been massacred, neither do the Iraqi people. But they know about the moral depth of this atrocity. They know that Iraqi lives do not count for the coalition, nor for its servants in the Iraqi detachments of American intelligence, who now call themselves Ministers.

The highest Shia authority in Baghdad, Shaikh Muhammad Mahdi al-Khalissi, condemned the assault on Falluja as an "aggression and dirty war", and said:

"No matter how powerful the occupation forces are, they will be driven out of Iraq sooner or later. The current savage military attack on Falluja by US occupation forces and the US appointed Iraqi Government is an act of mass murder and a crime of war".

The Association of Muslim Scholars, a Sunni powerhouse, proclaimed a Fatwa prohibiting Iraqis from joining in the American attack. Muqtada al-Sadr withdrew the support of his movement for the January elections. His aide declared:

"There has been a chance for a peaceful solution, but the Government always chooses the military solution because the United States wants that."

Meantime, open insurgency rages in Kirkuk, Tikrit, Samarra, Baiji, and in Iraq’s third largest city, Mosul. Other towns have given refuge to fighters fleeing from Falluja itself, as has Ar Ramadi.

The official story put out by the coalition is that strong contingents of foreign fighters and supporters of the old regime constitute tightly knit minorities who can be hunted down, to the relief of the majority of peace loving Iraqis. The destruction of Falluja will destroy this myth. The American occupation stands revealed, red in tooth and claw. It does not intend to go away. It would like to establish economically viable bases, for sure, and to withdraw many soldiers for deployment elsewhere. But it does not intend to relinquish control of the resources it had thought it had won. Oil remains very high on the agenda.

Quite why Tony Blair supports these brigands is very difficult to understand. There may not be many spoils of war for him. But he has earned a due share of the opprobrium which attaches to war criminals. A brave attempt to impeach him has been made on the initiative of Plaid Cymru’s MP Adam Price, and we have published the magisterial indictment prepared by Glen Rangwala and Dan Plesch. The impeachment concerns the lies that were told in preparation for the invasion. More lies are following all the time, and they are more desperately told, as the truth about this illegal war, and this incredibly brutal occupation, begins to make itself plain. Unlike President Bush, the Prime Minister’s election is in front of him. It is difficult to see how anyone with a conscience will be able to support the renewal of his mandate.

INTRODUCTION

Water supplies to Tall Afar, Samarra and Fallujah have been cut off during US attacks in the past two months, affecting up to 750,000 civilians. This appears to form part of a deliberate US policy of denying water to the residents of cities under attack. If so, it has been adopted without a public debate, and without consulting Coalition partners. It is a serious breach of international humanitarian law, and is deepening Iraqi opposition to the United States, other Coalition members, and the Iraqi interim government.

EVIDENCE FOR THE DENIAL OF WATER

Tall Afar

On 19 September 2004, the Washington Post reported that US forces 'had turned off' water supplies to Tall Afar 'for at least three days' (1). Turkish television reported a statement from the Iraqi Turkoman Front that 'Tall Afar is completely surrounded. Entries and exits are banned. The water shortage is very serious' (2). Al-Manar television in Lebanon interviewed an aid worker who stated that 'the main problem facing the people of Tall Afar and adjacent areas is shortage of water' (3). Relief workers reported a shortage of clean water (4). Moreover, the Washington Post reports that the US army failed to offer water to those fleeing Tall Afar, including children and pregnant women (5).

Samarra

'Water and electricity [were] cut off' during the assault on Samarra on Friday 1 October 2004, according to Knight Ridder Newspapers (6) and the Independent (7). The Washington Post explicitly blames 'U.S. forces' for this (8). Iraqi TV station Al-Sharqiyah reported that technical teams were working to 'restore the power and water supply and repair the sewage networks in Samarra' (9). Al Jazeera interviewed an aid worker who confirmed that 'the city is experiencing a crisis in which power and water are cut off' (10), as well as the commander of the Samarra Police, who reported that 'there is no electricity and no water' (11).

Fallujah

On 16 October the Washington Post reported that:

'Electricity and water were cut off to the city [Fallujah] just as a fresh wave of strikes began Thursday night, an action that U.S. forces also took at the start of assaults on Najaf and Samarra.' (12)

Residents of Fallujah have told the UN's Integrated Regional Information Networks that 'they had no food or clean water and did not have time to store enough to hold out through the impending battle' (13). The water shortage has been confirmed by other civilians fleeing Fallujah(14), Fadhil Badrani, a BBC journalist in Falluja, confirmed on 8 November that 'the water supply has been cut off'.

In light of the shortage of water and other supplies, the Red Cross has attempted to deliver water to Fallujah. However the US has refused to allow shipments of water into Fallujah until it has taken control of the city (15).

Other cases

There have been allegations that the water supply was cut off during the assault on Najaf in August 2004, and during the invasion of Basra in 2003. We have not investigated these claims.

JUSTIFICATIONS FOR THE DENIAL OF WATER

Some military analysts have attempted to justify the denial of water on tactical or humanitarian grounds. Ian Kemp, editor of military journal 'Jane's Defence Weekly', argues that:

'The longer the city [Fallujah] is sealed off with the insurgents inside, the more difficult it is going to be for them. Eventually, their supplies of food and water are going to dwindle' (16).

Barak Salmoni, assistant professor in National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, told the San Francisco Chronicle that civilians would probably be encouraged to leave Fallujah 'by cutting off water and other supplies' (17).

These arguments are deeply flawed on legal, humanitarian and political grounds. The majority of the population of Fallujah fled before the American attack. Those who have not already fled Fallujah are forced to remain, since roads out of the city have been blocked (18), including by British troops (19). Not only are those remaining unable to leave, but they are likely to consist largely of those too old, weak, or ill to flee - precisely the groups which will be most severely affected by a shortage of water.

REACTION IN IRAQ

The information reported above is more widely known in Iraq than in the US and UK, and has had become a significant political issue. Belief that US tactics involve denial of water is widespread. According to the LA Times:

'As soon as the women of Fallujah learned that four Americans had been killed, their bodies mutilated, burned and strung up from a bridge, they knew a terrible battle was coming. They filled their bathtubs and buckets with water...' (20)

Condemnations of the tactic have been issued by several major Iraqi political groups. On 1 October the Iraqi Islamic Party issued a statement criticising the US attack on Fallujah which 'cut off water, electricity, and medical supplies', and arguing that such an approach 'will further aggravate and complicate the security situation'. It also called for compensation for the victims (21).

Three days later Muqtada al-Sadr criticized both the denial of water to Samarra, and the lack of international outrage at it:

'They say that this city is experiencing the worst humanitarian situations, without water and electricity, but no-one speaks about this. If the wronged party were America, wouldn't the whole world come to its rescue and wouldn't it denounce this?' (22)

Denial of water is one of the misguided tactics which increases distrust of the Coalition forces. Asked in June how much confidence they had in US and UK forces, 50.8% of participating Iraqis responded 'none at all', with a further 29.5% saying 'not very much' (23).

This in turn fuels anti-American violence. A spokesman for the Association of Muslim Scholars, one of the most significant Sunni political groupings in Iraq, reported that the party's representative in Samarra had told him that 'there was no water'. He argued that partly as a result of this:

'The Iraqis no longer trust the Americans. It is not a question of military manifestations. It is now a question of popular rejection for the Americans, not for the military manifestations.' (24)

His analysis is confirmed by the Oxford Research International poll, according to which one third of Iraqis regard attacks against Coalition forces as 'acceptable' (25).

REACTION IN THE UK

Awareness of this issue remains extremely limited among the British public. The British government denies involvement. Despite inquiries from CASI and others, they appear not to have raised the issue with their American counterparts. UK Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram has denied knowledge of US action to cut off water supplies in Tall Afar (26), despite coverage in the Washington Post. Similarly Hilary Benn, the UK Secretary of State for International Development, says he has not discussed the issue with his American counterparts (27). This lack of communication with the American side suggests a lack of concern for the humanitarian implications of the conflict in Iraq, and an unwillingness to comment on American activities. Concerning British forces, Mr. Ingram has claimed that:

'With regard to the action of our own Forces, I can also confirm that we have not cut off water supplies to civilians. It is possible that local temporary disruptions may have occurred at some time due to damage from combat with anti-Iraqi Forces but we are not aware of any actual cases where this has happened' (28).

LEGAL IMPLICATIONS

The denial of water to civilians is illegal both under Iraqi and international law. Article 12 of the Transitional Administrative Law, which serves as a constitution during the interim period, states that:

'Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the security of his person' (29)

International law specifically forbids the denial of water to civilians during conflict. Under Article 14 of the second protocol of the Geneva Conventions,

'Starvation of civilians as a method of combat is prohibited. It is therefore prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless for that purpose, objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population such as food-stuffs, agricultural areas for the production of food-stuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works.' (30)

RECOMMENDATIONS

CASI calls on Members of Parliament to raise this issue with ministers as a matter of urgency. The UK government must use its influence with our US ally to ensure that all military operations are conducted within the bounds of international law. In addition to the suffering caused to the civilian population, use of these tactics by US forces puts our own troops at risk from rising insurgency.

We hope that the issue will be taken up by international NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Deliberate disruption of civilian water supplies should be a matter of concern for all who are promoting human rights in Iraq.

CASI urges journalists on the ground in Iraq to investigate the above reports further, in order to build up a clearer picture of use of this tactic. The UK media must give greater weight to the plight of civilian populations in their coverage of conflicts such as Fallujah. The UK public needs to know that our Coalition partner is using this illegal tactic.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This briefing was prepared for CASI by Daniel O'Huiginn and Alison Klevnas.

Thanks to Felicity Arbuthnot, Anne Campbell, Helena Cobban, Mike Lewis, Rory McCarthy, Glen Rangwala, Colin Rowat, Shirin, Jonathan Stevenson, Per Klevnas and the members of the CASI Analysis list for their help and advice.

Except where otherwise noted, extracts from the Iraqi press and broadcast media are taken from the BBC news monitoring service.

 

For more information on this issue, please contact:

Daniel O'Huiginn,

Tel: 01223 328040

Mobile: 07745 192426

Email: dan.ohuiginn@casi.org.uk

Footnotes

(1) 'After Recapturing N. Iraqi City, Rebuilding Starts from Scratch',
by Steve Fainaru. 19 September 2004.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A31377-2004Sep18?language=printer

(2) Comments by Faruq Abd-al-Rahman, leader of the Iraqi Turkoman Front, on TRT 2 Television, Ankara, 1600 gmt 12 September 2004

(3) Al-Manar Television, Beirut, 0440 gmt 14 September 2004

(4) Al-Sharqiyah, Baghdad, 1200 gmt 15 September 2004

(5) 'After Recapturing N. Iraqi City, Rebuilding Starts from Scratch',
by Steve Fainaru. 19 September 2004.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A31377-2004Sep18?language=printer

(6) 'US, Iraqi forces take control of Samarra'. By Nancy A. Youssef and Patrick Kerkstra, 1 October 2004,
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/world/9813499.htm

(7) 'Onslaught in Samarra escalates in 'dress rehearsal' for major US assault on rebels'. Ken Sengupta, Independent, 3 October.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=56835

(8) Washington Post, 16 October 2004.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34612-2004Oct15?language=printer

(9) Al-Sharqiyah, Baghdad, 1300GMT 8 October 2004

(10) Al-Jazeera TV, 1505 gmt 1 October 2004

(11) Al Jazeera TV, 1810 gmt 2 October 2004

(12) Washington Post, 16 October 2004.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34612-2004Oct15?language=printer

(13) 'Iraq: thousands of residents have fled Fallujah'. IRIN, 8 November.
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/c8e6aade2a3db177c1256f460051db3b?OpenDocument

(14) Comment by Shirin,
http://justworldnews.org/MT/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=966

(15) 'Iraq: thousands of residents have fled Fallujah'. IRIN, 8 November.
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/c8e6aade2a3db177c1256f460051db3b?OpenDocument

(16) 'Iraq: US troops surround al-Fallujah as offensive preparations continue'. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty feature, 8 November 2004.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/11/f29d2002-7151-4453-9e91-97c77a17d3f2.html

(17) San Francisco Chronicle, 6th November 2004.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/11/06/MNGHL9NBU11.DTL

(18) http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=580548

(19) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3989815.stm

(20) LA Times, 24 October,
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-fallouja24oct24,1,6787318.story?coll=la-headlines-world

(21) Statement issued by the Political Bureau of the Iraqi Islamic Party, on 19 Sha'ban 1425 AH, corresponding to 3 Oct 2004. Reported on Dar al-Salam radio, Baghdad in Arabic 1600 gmt 4 Oct 04

(22) Statement by Muqtada al-Sadr on Al-Manar Television, Beirut, in Arabic     1800 gmt 4 October 2004

(23) Survey conducted in June 2004 by Oxford Research International,
http://www.oxfordresearch.com/Iraq%20June%202004%20Frequency%20Tables.PD

(24) Al-Jazeera TV, 1615 GMT 2 October 2004

(25) Survey conducted in June 2004 by Oxford Research International,
http://www.oxfordresearch.com/Iraq%20June%202004%20Frequency%20Tables.PD

(26) Response of Adam Ingram on 25 October 2004 to questions 191479
(tabled by Llwyd, and 192090, 192089, and 192087 tabled by Adam Price.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmhansrd/cm041025/text/41025w03.htm#41025w03.html_spnew9

(27) Response to question by Adam Price MP:
Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what discussions he has had with counterparts in the US Administration on cutting off water supplies in Iraq. [192088] Hilary Benn: I have had no such discussions http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmhansrd/cm041103/text/41103w03.htm#41103w03.html_spnew4

(28) Letter from Adam Ingram to Anne Campbell MP, dated 21 October 2004,       ref D/Min(AF)/AI 4770/04/C

(29) Law of administration for the state of Iraq for the transitional period,
http://www.cpa-iraq.org/government/TAL.html

(30) http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/7c4d08d9b287a42141256739003e636b/d67c3971bcff1c10c125641e0052b545