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Reports From Iraq > Tue., Apr. 20, 2004
Prisoners of War in Iraq
Pfc. Matt Maupin is the first US soldier taken prisoner
since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. The American
occupation force is holding more than 20,000 Iraqis prisoner. |
by Aaron Glantz
BAGHDAD, IRAQ -- Iraqi insurgents have taken their first
American soldier prisoner since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Private First Class Matt Maupin, was assigned to the Army
Reserve's 724th Transportation Company, based at Bartonville,
Ill., near Peoria. In footage first shown Friday on the Arab
Satellite Channel al-Jazeera, Maupin did not appear hurt but
was surrounded by insurgents who offered to exchange him for
imprisoned Iraqis.
The US military is currently holding more than 20,000 Iraqi's
behind bars.
It's been a year since 70 year old Boyadin Sayid Jassem last
saw his son, Riyad -- who was conscripted into the Iraqi Army
to fight the American invasion. He says Riyad was last seen
at a battle in al-Yusufia, 15 miles South of Baghdad.
"A friend of my son told me my son was wounded and that
the Americans picked him up and took him," he says. "But
to where nobody knows."
Boyadin Sayid Jassem quakes as he speaks. He says he visited
every American prison in the Baghdad area before hearing about
the Anglo-American POW prison at um-Qasr in Southern Iraq.
During last year's war, George Bush's coalition of the willing
took more than 7,300 prisoners.
"I went to um Qasr near Basra," he says, "to
prison run by the American and British forces. I described
the situation and when they checked in their computer they
told me my son's name is in their record. So I asked them
'Where is he?' and they told me 'We can't tell you now because
of the security situation.'"
A year after US Forces symbolically toppled Saddam Hussein's
statue in front of the world media, the Pentagon estimates
it still holds 7,500 prisoners in Um Qasr. Another 15,000
are incarcerated at abu Grahib prison outside Baghdad -- That
prison, the most feared lock-up of Saddam's regime -- is overflowing
with prisoners arrested by the occupation forces. The extra
inmates are herded into open-air tents on the prison grounds.
"The major problem that Iraqi people suffer from is
random capture by the US military," Sa'ad Sultan Hussein,
Chief Lawyer for the Ministry of Human Rights appointed by
the occupation authority. "They are disappeared and no
one can tell where they are or the reason for their capture.
They even don't allow the families to visit them and the Geneva
Convention says they must allow the families to visit."
Among those missing in the custody of the US military is
the eldest son of Hussein Salem Khleff. On April 6th last
year -- during the middle of the war -- Hussein's entire family
was traveling down a main road south of Baghdad -- fleeing
the front in the family's mini-bus.
"We were surprised by the America forces," he relates.
"They just started shooting over the car. And my brother
was on top of the trailer carrying a while flag of peace.
A bullet hit his leg. The American forces came toward us and
then the Americans climbed on the trailer. When they saw that
a bullet hit his leg they called for a medic."
After a half hour wait, Hussein Salem Khleff says an American
medical helicopter came and took his son away. It was the
last time Hussein saw his son.
"They told me we are heading for Baghdad, but when he
gets well we will bring him to the same place he was wounded.
I have searched for him in every American base. Nobody can
tell me where he is."
A year after his son disappeared, Hussein Salem Khleff has
given up on formal processes. He's taken to posting photos
of his missing son on lap-posts around Baghdad. He's asked
Arab satellite TV stations like al-Jazeera to show the photo
on a regular basis. So far, nothing has worked.
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