Gravissimo - in Iraq le squadre della morte?

Oggi Dexter Filkins sul New York Times riporta fatti gravissimi.

Unita' dell'esercito iracheno e del Ministero degli Interni avrebbero eseguito arresti arbirtrari, troturando ed uccindendo decine se non centinaia di sunniti e lasciandone in alcuni casi i corpi per strada.

As the American military pushes the largely Shiite Iraqi security services into a larger role in combating the insurgency, evidence has begun to mount suggesting that the Iraqi forces are carrying out executions in predominantly Sunni neighborhoods.

Hundreds of accounts of killings and abductions have emerged in recent weeks, most of them brought forward by Sunni civilians, who claim that their relatives have been taken away by Iraqi men in uniform without warrant or explanation.

Some Sunni men have been found dead in ditches and fields, with bullet holes in their temples, acid burns on their skin, and holes in their bodies apparently made by electric drills. Many have simply vanished.

Le stesse autorita' USA hanno liberato alcuni giovani che venicano torturati all'interno dei bunker del Ministero degli Interni.

Some of the young men have turned up alive in prison. In a secret bunker discovered earlier this month in an Interior Ministry building in Baghdad, American and Iraqi officials acknowledged that some of the mostly Sunni inmates appeared to have been tortured.

Almeno una organizzazione umanitaria starebbe conducendo indagini hanno trovato sinora soltanto prove indiziarie, ma i racconti sembrano coerenti e precisi.

Many of the claims of killings and abductions have been substantiated by at least one human rights organization working here - which asked not to be identified because of safety concerns - and documented by Sunni leaders working in their communities.
[...]
An investigator for the human rights organization said it had not been able to determine the number of executions carried out by the Iraqi security forces. So far, the investigator said, the evidence was anecdotal, but substantial.

Sicuramente, uomini che si sono identificati come appartenenti alle forze di sicurezza irachene hanno rapito e poi ucciso appartenenti alla minorazna sunnita, che governava il paese sotto Saddam.

"There is no question that bodies are turning up," said the investigator, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity, citing safety concerns. "Quite a few have been handcuffed and shot in the back of the head."

Le smentite del governo iracheno sono veementi, ma personalmente mi sembra difficile che l'operato di "squadre della morte" di questo tipo non sia perlomeno tollerato a livello ufficioso dagli ufficali locali; gli stessii crimini commessi all'Interno del Ministero dell'Interno sono una prova dell'inefficienza, se non della connivenza del governo.

Bayan Jabr, the interior minister, and other government officials denied any government involvement, saying the killings were carried out by men driving stolen police cars and wearing police and army uniforms purchased at local markets. 'Impossible! Impossible!' Mr. Jabr said. 'That is totally wrong; it's only rumors; it is nonsense.'

E' allucinante: il primo pilastro di una societa' libera e' la protezione dell'individuo contro gli abusi delle forze di polizia.
Se poi queste azioni non fossero ordinate dall'alto, ma orgnaizzate da milizie locali che non possono certo agire all'oscuro delle autorita', sarebbe anche peggio: non e' possibile che le forze di sicurezza possano agire impunemente non solo contro il comune cittadino, ma persino contro lo stesso governo centrale!

Accuse come queste vanno indagate a fondo e con la massima celerita' non nascoste sotto un tappeto, come purtroppo sembrano fare alcune fonti USA interpellate.

American officials, who are overseeing the training of the Iraqi Army and the police, acknowledge that police officers and Iraqi soldiers, and the militias with which they are associated, may indeed be carrying out killings and abductions in Sunni communities, without direct American knowledge.

But they also say it is difficult, in an already murky guerrilla war, to determine exactly who is responsible. The American officials insisted on anonymity because they were working closely with the Iraqi government and did not want to criticize it publicly.

Fermare questi abusi e' ancora piu' importante per chi, come noi, e' un sostenitore delle ragioni dell'intervento in Iraq.
Da un punto di vista strettamente realista, tale politica e' un vero disastro: che possibilita' vi sarebbero di costruire un regime stabile in un asituazione del genere?

The widespread conviction among Sunnis that the Shiite-led government is bent on waging a campaign of terror against them is sending waves of fear through the community, just as Iraqi and American officials are trying to coax the Sunnis to take part in nationwide elections on Dec. 15.

Sunnis believe that the security forces are carrying out sectarian reprisals, in part to combat the insurgency, but also in revenge for years of repression at the hands of Saddam Hussein's government.

Ayad Allawi, a prominent Iraqi politician who is close to the Sunni community, charged in an interview published Sunday in The London Observer that the Iraqi government - and the Ministry of Interior in particular - was condoning torture and running death squads."

L'articolo e' da leggere tutto.

Triste considerazione: i politici iracheni, dopo essere stati lasciati in balia di Saddam per una generazione, non ocnoscono altro modo di governare che tramite il terrore. I pochi espatriati e le forze alleate sembrano essere l'unica guardia contro la prospettiva di un ritorno, almeno parziale, alla condotta di Saddam.