Saturday, August 02, 2003
To U.S. Forces: the cost of being an informant? Priceless.
To Iraqi citizens: the cost of being an informant? Your Life.
Let's put it this way: that dude who just informed the U.S. forces as to the whereabouts of Uday and Qsay? He had better take his $30M reward and head out of town. Like, now. Or else, he might just end up like this:
THULUYA, Iraq -- Two hours before the dawn call to prayer, in a village still shrouded in silence, Sabah Kerbul's executioners arrived. His father carried an AK-47 assault rifle, as did his brother. And with barely a word spoken, they led the man accused by the village of working as an informer for the Americans behind a house girded with fig trees, vineyards and orange groves.
His father raised his rifle and aimed it at his oldest son.
Kerbul, a tall, husky 28-year-old, died.
"It wasn't an easy thing to kill him," his brother Salah said.
In his simple home of cement and cinder blocks, the father, Salem, nervously thumbed black prayer beads this week as he recalled a warning from village residents earlier this month. He insisted his son was not an informer, but he said his protests meant little to a village seething with anger. He recalled their threat was clear: Either he kill his son, or villagers would resort to tribal justice and kill the rest of his family in retaliation for Kerbul's role in a U.S. military operation in the village in June, in which four people were killed.
In Iraq, that's the price you now pay for merely being suspected of collaborating with occupying forces. So much for "liberation" being a piece of yellowcake.
posted by voxpopgirl |
8/02/2003
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