Current Issues in Occupation Law: 2003 Civilian Deaths in Baghdad

• Author: Fred Abrahams
• Position: Senior Researcher for Human Rights Watch
• Pages: 201-214

VIII

Current Issues in Occupation Law:

2003 Civilian Deaths in Baghdad

Fred Abrahams*

This article documents and analyzes civilian deaths caused by US forces in

Baghdad from the end of major combat operations in May 2003 until Octo-

ber of that year. It is based on field research conducted in Iraq in September and

October 2003 for Human Rights Watch. During that time, the author interviewed

the witnesses to civilian deaths, family members of the deceased, victims who were

non-lethal casualties, Iraqi police, lawyers and human rights activists, US soldiers,

US Army judge advocates stationed in Iraq, and members of the United States-led

Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), responsible at the time for governing Iraq.

The research revealed many cases of upstanding and legally respectful work by

the US military in Iraq's capital. Many soldiers and commanders were aware of

their obligations as an occupying power under international humanitarian law and

took appropriate measures to fulfill those obligations. At the same time, there were

disturbing cases during the period under review in which soldiers used force in an

excessive or indiscriminate manner, sometimes resulting in the death of Iraqi civil-

ians. Many of these cases went uninvestigated, contributing to an atmosphere of

impunity.

Clearly Iraq was and remains ahostile environment for US troops, with daily at-

tacks by Iraqis or others opposed to the United States and coalition forces. But such

*Senior Researcher for Human Rights Watch.