The Americans came for Sajid al-Bawi at 3 a.m., ramming his gate with a Humvee, breaking down the front door with their rifles and bursting into his living room, where, his family says, he was sleeping with his wife and five children.
“That’s Sajid,” said a masked Iraqi who was with them, pointing. The soldiers took al-Bawi into an adjoining room for interrogation and an hour later they left, accompanied by a hooded man who the family said it assumed was al-Bawi.
It was only after the soldiers left, family members said, that they discovered al-Bawi’s bullet-riddled corpse wedged beside a refrigerator in the room in which he had been questioned. A crude attempt was made to hide the body under a pile of mattresses and blankets, said his family, surmising the soldiers didn’t want the killing to be discovered until they were well clear of the area.
The U.S. military disputes the family’s story and says an investigation into the killing found no wrongdoing on the part of U.S. soldiers.
But the family doesn’t accept that finding and is seeking answers to their questions about al-Bawi’s death at the hands of U.S. soldiers in the predawn hours of May 17.
In an initial statement announcing the investigation, the U.S. military said soldiers went to al-Bawi’s home in the Kamalaya neighborhood because of a tip that he was “an anti-Iraqi forces’ operative who bragged to his neighbors about murdering a 1st Cavalry soldier at a checkpoint.”
The investigation found that a soldier had acted “in self defense, in accordance with the rules of engagement,” shooting al-Bawi when he tried to resist detention, a subsequent statement said.
“When a soldier attempted to handcuff Sajid, Sajid struggled to break free and grabbed the soldier’s weapon,” the statement said. “Sajid grabbed the soldier’s pistol grip and rotated the selector switch from `safe’ to `fire.’ The soldier, fearing that his life and the lives of his fellow soldiers were in imminent danger, drew his pistol from its holster and shot five rounds into Sajid.”
No attempt was made to hide al-Bawi’s body, a military spokesman said, adding that the family had given conflicting accounts of the killing to U.S. soldiers and the media.
“The soldiers were detaining Sajid and were in the process of handcuffing him to remove him for detention when they discovered he had died from his wounds,” said the spokesman, on condition of anonymity. The soldiers departed, “leaving Sajid where he was lying on the floor in plain view. He was not lying behind a refrigerator under some mats.”
In the chaotic, violent aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the death of a single suspect during a raid might well have gone unnoticed, and the reasons why al-Bawi died may never be clarified.
But al-Bawi’s family has determined that his death should not be allowed to pass without some form of redress from the U.S soldiers they had once welcomed as liberators from Saddam Hussein’s tyranny.
Brother seeks answers
Al-Bawi’s brother Qassem, 40, an agricultural lecturer, has taken on full-time his brother’s death; he has badgered the U.S. military, tracked down human-rights organizations, called on the media and hired a lawyer to press his case in the Iraqi courts. It has proved a frustrating but revealing quest, illuminating some of the many contradictions of life in the new Iraq.
Qassem al-Bawi said he can’t understand why it was necessary for U.S. soldiers to shoot an unarmed man in his own home.
“They told me, `One of your neighbors tipped us off that Sajid colluded with the resistance,'” said Qassem al-Bawi, recalling one of his many visits to the nearby American base. “I said, `Are you allowed to kill according to a tip-off? Why didn’t you arrest him and take him to prison? Why didn’t you make certain first that he was guilty?'”
A report from the Iraqi medical examiner said al-Bawi was shot from two directions, and his brother said the family found two kinds of bullet casings in the room, calling into question the military’s assertion that he was shot by one soldier. And if his brother had indeed lunged for a soldier’s weapon during his interrogation, Qassem al-Bawi wonders whether the soldiers could have restrained him.
“There were at least 12 soldiers with him,” he said. “I think they didn’t have to shoot him.”
Under Hussein’s regime, families would never have dared ask such questions when loved ones were taken away or executed. Now they are free to do so.
But the family is frustrated and despondent that its questions have not been answered. Because U.S. troops have immunity from prosecution in Iraq, the family’s hope for an open trial is unlikely to be realized.
Rights groups suspicious
Al-Bawi’s death raises questions about the treatment of suspects, human-rights observers say.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, 70 to 90 percent of Iraqis detained by U.S. forces eventually are found not guilty, suggesting a pattern of faulty intelligence, said Marc Garlasco, of New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Al-Bawi family members insist that any intelligence the U.S. may have received about Sajid al-Bawi must have been wrong.
Like most Shiites, the family suffered under Hussein’s regime; two cousins were executed for belonging to the then-outlawed Dawa Party. Haidar al-Bawi, 27, another of Sajid al-Bawi’s brothers, recalls joining the crowds who thronged the streets when U.S. troops first appeared in the neighborhood.
“We were so happy to see them,” he said. “We thought they were bringing freedom, but what kind of freedom is this?”
Family: No link to rebels
His family insists al-Bawi had no involvement with the insurgents active in the area, a poor Shiite neighborhood near the notorious Sadr City. They describe Sajid al-Bawi, 42, as a deeply religious family man who earned a living renting out chairs and tables for functions.
In the living room of their 2-story home, decorated with pictures of Shiite religious leaders, family members recounted the ordeal of that night.
After the soldiers had taken his brother into a neighboring room, said Haidar al-Bawi, who was among those present, they rounded up the three other men in the house, bound them and forced them to kneel. The children, a dozen in all, were gathered in the living room, where soldiers kept guard over them, allegedly with guns to their heads.
“I was afraid. It was dark, and they put a flashlight in my eyes so I couldn’t see,” recalled Sajid al-Bawi’s eldest son, Ali, 12. “All the time, there was a gun pressing on my head.”
Qassem al-Bawi said his brother had no enemies, but wonders if someone who was being paid for tips may have falsely accused him. On one visit to the American base, he was offered money to identify insurgents in his neighborhood. “They told me it would help prove my sincerity,” he said.
On another visit, he was offered $1,500 in compensation for his brother’s death, the maximum amount payable under U.S. policy. But in return for the money, he said, he was told to sign a form relieving the U.S. military of responsibility in the killing. He refused.
“All I want is justice,” he said, “For justice, I am prepared to give my blood and my soul.”
