Sunni Woman's Rape Claim Roils Iraq
An Iraqi Sunni woman who leveled rape allegations against three members of the Shiite-dominated security forces was taken to a U.S.-run medical facility over the weekend, the chief U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday.
But Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell refused to disclose details of her medical treatment or examination, citing privacy issues.
"What I can tell you is that at a point on Sunday evening, an Iraqi woman was brought to our medical facility. She was put under the care of our medical personnel there and sometime early Monday morning she was released," he said.
The revelation has stunned Iraq, where rape is rarely discussed in public — much less by the victim herself on a prominent television station. With Shiite leaders calling her charges propaganda and Sunni politicians offering the woman support, the disclosure has threatened to worsen sectarian violence.
The 20-year-old Sunni woman said she was assaulted Sunday at a police garrison where she was taken on suspicion of helping Sunni insurgents. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office Wednesday released what it said was a medical report issued by Ibn Sina hospital indicating no signs of rape.
The report, in English, was e-mailed to news organizations by al-Maliki's office. The grainy document was marked as page two of three and did not have the name of the patients or any of her personal details. A handwritten note in English said she had no bruises or injuries.
Caldwell said the Americans had not released any information about the case out of respect for patient privacy.
"She was released with her medical records. What she does with those is her own decision," he said.
Caldwell also told reporters that Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, has ordered a probe into the case and appointed an investigating officer who already has begun collecting information on the allegations, made in interviews broadcast Monday by several Arab satellite TV stations.
"Once the Iraqi government makes a decision on how they are going to move forward (and) there is an investigating judicial process established and they need this information from us, we will make that readily available to them," he said.
In other developments:
Caldwell's comments came hours after al-Maliki fired a top Sunni official who had called for an international investigation into the rape allegations. He also has exonerated the three Iraqi policemen accused by the woman and said they should be rewarded as a sign of confidence in the force.
A separate statement by al-Maliki's office gave no reason in announcing the dismissal of Ahmed Abdul-Ghafour al-Samaraie, head of the Sunni Endowment. Al-Samaraie, whose organization cares for Sunni mosques and shrines in Iraq, had joined other prominent Sunnis in criticizing the government's handling of the case.
Al-Samaraie, speaking from Amman in neighboring Jordan, disputed al-Maliki's right to fire him, arguing that only the country's Presidential Council — which comprises President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies — has that authority. A statement by the Endowment, which has offices across the country, said it rejects al-Samaraie's dismissal and declared an indefinite protest at its offices to protest the move.
His dismissal was the latest move in a highly publicized and increasingly bitter tussle over the rape allegations, pitting al-Maliki's Shiite-dominated government against its Sunni Arab critics. The public quarrel is fueling charges by the Sunnis that a Baghdad security crackdown was targeting Sunni neighborhoods and leaving unaffected Shiite areas harboring militias blamed for sectarian killings.
Al-Maliki has said the woman's allegations were being used by his critics to discredit the security forces and undermine the U.S.-Iraqi security sweep under way.
Al-Samaraie, the senior Sunni official, said in a statement Monday that the rape allegations offered what he called proof of the failure of the security push in Baghdad to protect the city's residents.
"The Sunni Endowment strongly denounces this horrific crime and lets out a cry for help from the international community and human rights organizations, demanding that they launch an immediate investigation into this crime," said the statement, signed by al-Samaraie.
Speaking to Al-Arabiyah television Wednesday, he said, "Many girls are raped but they refuse to appear in the media so as not to tarnish their reputations," he said. Later, he told Al-Jazeera: "We will continue to speak with courage and we will not fear anyone but God and I am not concerned about losing my job because the honor of Iraqi women is a thousand times more valuable than government jobs."
Also Wednesday, an Iraqi military spokesman suggested that the woman was helping Sunni insurgents in the western Baghdad Amil district where she lives, saying that security forces had more than once found her preparing large amounts of food during previous raids.
Brig. Gen. Qassim Moussawi said at a news conference the woman was questioned for only 15 minutes and that the house from which she was taken into custody had an "opening" that led to a small clinic where large amounts of medicines allegedly used to treat wounded "terrorists" were found.
He said the scandal surrounding the rape allegations was a result of coordinated efforts by groups inside and outside the country that were "known to be hostile to Iraq and its people," implying it was a publicity stunt engineered by critics of al-Maliki's government. First word of the rape allegations first came Sunday from parliament's largest Sunni Arab bloc, the National Accordance Front.