Amerikaanse Oorlogsmisdaden 26

Het verspreiden van democratie en mensenrechten is een zware klus. MSNBC bericht: '7 Marines, 1 sailor charged with murder. Accused service members held over April 26 death of Iraqi civilian.

WASHINGTON - Seven Marines and a sailor have been charged with murder in the April death of an Iraqi civilian, the Marine Corps said Wednesday.
All eight also were charged with kidnapping, according to a Marine statement issued at Camp Pendleton, Calif. Other charges include conspiracy, larceny and providing false official statements.
Separately, the U.S. military in Iraq announced that murder charges were filed against a fourth Army soldier in the shooting deaths May 9 of three civilians who had been detained by U.S. troops. Spc. Juston R. Graber, 20, of the 101st Airborne Division was charged with one count of premeditated murder, one count of attempted premeditated murder, one count of conspiracy to commit murder, and making a false official statement.
Accused held in military jailOn Monday the military had announced that three soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division were charged with murder and other offenses in connection with the May 9 killings. It was not clear why charges against the fourth soldier were not announced until Wednesday.
In the case of the April 26 killing of an Iraqi civilian, the allegation is that Marines pulled an unarmed man from his home in Hamdania and shot him to death without provocation. Seven Marines and one Navy corpsman from the Pendleton-based 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment were taken out of Iraq and put in the brig pending the filing of charges.' Lees verder:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13459928/

Ondertussen bericht Reuters: 'Iraq speaker demands US probe in new deaths.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The speaker of Iraq's parliament asked the U.S. ambassador on Wednesday to investigate the killing by U.S. troops of "many innocent people" at a poultry farm in a village northeast of Baghdad.
The U.S. military, in the spotlight over murder charges it has brought against troops accused of killing Iraqis, said all 15 people killed in Tuesday's raid near Baquba were gunmen.
Aides to parliamentary speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said in a statement that he had asked U.S. envoy Zalmy Khalilzad to launch a "quick and transparent investigation".
"The speaker demanded the U.S. forces stop such ... mistakes," it said. "The Iraqi leadership should not fail to take action in order to stop the bloodshed of ... Iraqis."
Mashhadani is a Sunni Arab, elected in April to an office reserved for the minority under power-sharing conventions to distribute posts among Sunnis, Kurds and majority Shi'ites.
On Tuesday, the U.S. military said its forces hunting Sunni insurgents linked to al Qaeda killed 15 gunmen in simultaneous raids. Residents of Qaduri Ali al Shahin village 13 km (9 miles) north of Baquba said the dead were employees of a poultry farm.
The Sunni Muslim Scholars Association, which is sharply critical of the U.S. occupation, condemned "this crime".
The U.S. military is particularly sensitive to allegations against troops in Iraq since 24 Iraqis were killed during action by U.S. Marines at Haditha in November. The case has stirred passions in the way prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib did in 2004.' Lees verder:
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-06-21T182939Z_01_MAC162918_RTRUKOT_0_TEXT0.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsArt-L1-RelatedNews-1