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| Mon, 07-19-2004 - 8:52pm |
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_19-7-2004_pg1_2
US media kills story that Iraqi PM executed 6 prisoners
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: The US media has surprisingly failed to pick up the shocking disclosure by Sydney Morning Herald, Australia’s leading newspaper, that the Irqai Prime Minister Iyad Allawi personally executed six suspected insurgents in a Baghdad police station.
The story by award-winning Australian journalist Paul McGeough said that the prisoners were handcuffed and blindfolded, lined up against a courtyard wall and shot by the Iraqi PM. Dr Allawi is alleged to have told those around him that he wanted to send a clear message to the police on how to deal with insurgents. Two people allege they witnessed the killings and there are also claims the Iraqi interior minister and four American men were present.
An Australian television channel interviewed the reporter who is in Iraq telling him that the Allawi family had denied the story. He replied, “Well it’s a very contentious issue. What you have is two very solid eyewitness accounts. Each witness is not aware that the other spoke.â€
The Australian journalist said, “Well, I’ll take you through what the two witnesses said to give you the full chronology as I understand it. There was a surprise visit at about 10:30am to the police centre. The PM talked to policemen and then toured the complex. They came to a courtyard where six, sorry seven prisoners were lined up against a wall. They were blindfolded, they were described to me as an Iraqi colloquialism for the fundamentalist foreign fighters who came to Baghdad. They have that classic look that you see with many of the Osama Bin Laden associates of the scraggly beard and the very short hair and they were a sort of ... took place in front of them as they were up against this wall was an exchange between the interior minister and Dr Allawi, saying that he felt like killing them on the spot.
The interior minister expressed the wish that he would like to kill all these men on the spot. The PM is said to have responded that they deserved worse than death. At that point, he is said to have pulled a gun and proceeded to aim at and shoot all seven. Six of them died, the seventh, according to one witness, was wounded in the chest. On the incident date, the correspondent said, “It happened on or around the weekend of June 19/20 — three weeks after Dr Allawi was named PM and one week before the handover.��
*******Follow up********
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200407/s1156598.htm
Iraqi minister to investigate Allawi execution claims
By Geoff Thompson in Baghdad
Iraq's Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin says he will investigate allegations that Iraq's interim Prime Minister personally executed suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station last month.
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.
"This is not the Iyad Allawi I know" he said.
"He is not a killer and he does not carry a gun".
Mr Amin committed his Human Rights Ministry to investigating the allegations but added that the reports could draw defamation litigation in Australia if they were found not to be true.
"Well, these are serious allegations and if that shows it's a false… I believe that it's a false allegation, and it's a defamation, and the one who writes these things has a major responsibility in front of the court systems of their own country as well," he said.
Mr Amin said that he would not wish to work for Dr Allawi if the allegations were true.
The offices of Iraq's Prime Minister and Interior Minister have dismissed the allegations as unsubstantiated rumour.
The report's author, Fairfax correspondent Paul McGeough, has said he believes the witnesses he interviewed gave credible accounts.
The story has not travelled far beyond Australia's shores.
It is the sort of story which cannot be verified without access to Mr McGeough's sources, or without independent investigations which would take time.
Most foreign news agencies here have dismissed the reports as being either not solid enough, or too difficult to corroborate.
