DC REPORT’S EXCLUSIVE AMERICAN COVERAGE
I’ve had a news item that I never had a chance to post, but that still seems worth passing on. On Friday, July 23, I finished my photo assignments by noon. I consulted the Reuters daybook and saw that there was a briefing by survivors of Saddam Hussein’s regime in the National Press Building. It sounded like an interesting event.
I didn’t realize until I arrived at the Press Building that the press conference was being held at the Foreign Press Club. As the name implies, events at the Foreign Press Club are only open to, well, foreigners. I decided I had nothing to lose, so I headed on in and played dumb. The lady acting as a gatekeeper asked me who I was with and initially denied me access. A bystander spoke up for letting me in, and I was admitted on the condition that I not ask any questions during the press conference.
The press conference was hosted by Andrew S. Natsios,
Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). He was joined by three Iraqis.
Jano Rosebiani
The press conference opened with comments from Jano Rosebiani, an American-educated documentary filmmaker from Iraq. He is an expert on Iraq’s mass graves. We watched an excerpt from his film "Saddam’s Mass Graves" which was released in February 2004. I have a DVD of the film.
Taimour (last name withheld)
Taimour, the second Iraqi who spoke, grew up on a farm in a remote village called Kulejo. Even though his family was not in opposition to Saddam, they were targeted in the Anfal massacre where Saddam systematically killed an estimated 180,000 Kurdish Iraqis. Taimour was taken with his family at the age of twelve and thrown in a pit to be slaughtered by machine gun. Although shot several times, Taimour survived and escaped from the pit. A Bedouin helped him, and he eventually made it to Kurdistan. He was alone in the world, haunted by the memories of what he had seen.
Taimour is believed by some to be the only person who survived the Anfal killings. As the only living witness Taimour was a major liability to the Iraqi government. Saddam offered a reward to anyone who would bring him Taimour’s head.
In 1996 human rights advocates helped Taimour flee to the United States. Taimour hopes to testify in the trial of Saddam Hussein. I got goosebumps as Taimour told us that he now owns his own business in the US.
Ibrahim (last name withheld)
The third Iraqi, named Ibrahim, spoke to us through an interpreter. Ibrahim grew up in a respected neighborhood in Baghdad. After high school he joined a group that opposed the Ba’ath Party.
Ibrahim was jailed and brutally tortured on multiple occassions. Saddam’s operatives beat him with bull whips, broke his front teeth, ripped off his toenails, applied electric shocks to his nipples, and used other inhumane physical and psychological torture techniques. Ibrahim still faces physical consequences of the torture.
As I listened to Ibrahim, I was amazed to realize that he had been in an Iraqi prison as recently as 2003. Some of his time was spent in the now famous Abu Ghraib prison while it was under Saddam’s control. He said that the highly publicized American actions in that prison were "a joke compared to what Saddam and his operatives did." He stressed that the coverage of Abu Ghraib has been politically motivated. Where were the journalists when the true atrocities were happening in Iraq?
Since the fall of the Saddam’s regime Ibrahim has continued to fight for human rights in Iraq. He is the Director of the Free Prisoner’s Association of Iraq, a group that is helping Iraqis in their search for loved ones who were imprisoned or killed.