IRAQI CHILDREN DETAINED AND INTERROGATED BY SOLDIERS - Veterans group protests unethical abuse of youngsters

10.28.06 (Toronto) Today, the Chairman of Veteran Organ Donors International Bruce A. Gorcyca, also a U.S. military veteran, announced that their volunteer group received information from two independent sources in Baghdad that Iraqi children as young as 5 and 6 years old were being pulled from their classrooms and privately interrogated by U.S. soldiers in uniforms about their fathers. The children were asked if they wanted to be “mujahadin” when they grow up and those that responded with a “yes” were then asked if their fathers were “Mujahadin”. If they again answered “yes” the children were taken away and held hostage until their fathers surrendered themselves for interrogation that could last for weeks, as they have in the past. Historically, less than half of those interrogated are ever released.

We received this information from the same source that told us of Iraqi mothers and wives being taken from their homes in 2005 in much the same manner by U.S. troops who then offered to release the women only if their husbands and sons would surrender and submit interrogation under the influence of drugs . ABC News later confirmed that story to be true a few weeks after we received the information. “I consider these tactics to be barbaric, un-American, and shameful” said Gorcyca. “Some members of the Arab League have suggested this may be yet another potential war crime, and we want the United Nations to establish a war crime commission to look into this immediately” he added. “We remind the world that these Iraqi children, just like every other Iraqi citizen, had no links whatsoever to 911, and the only weapons on mass destruction found in Iraq over the last five years, has been those launched from U.S. warships and aircraft”. Added Gorcyca. From VODI’s own independent investigation, the veterans agrees that the casualty count of Iraqi civilians is much closer to the John Hopkins University report (600,000) than the 30,000 cited by the Bush Administration. “One thing is certain, far more civilians than troops have been killed in Iraq since American forces first landed in 1991” added Gorcyca.

Just last week VODI published an open letter to the United Nations, U.S. Congress, and Parliament demanding that the deaths of over 5,000 Iraqi children from American bombs, missiles, and bullets be investigated. The group is now trying to attend to the some 3,000 Iraqi children in need of organ transplants due to injuries received from the last two invasions over the last decade. Extensive use of radioactive depleted uranium weapons by coalition forces has almost doubled the leukemia rate of Iraqi children who are now in desperate need of bone marrow transplants. “Iraqi parents take no comfort in the fact their children were not killed or maimed deliberately” remarked Gorcyca who further explained “It is not hard to understand the growing “insurgency” in Iraq which may be nothing more than enraged citizens seeking revenge for the death of their children or parents. After all if the roles were reversed, I’m sure my fellow-American would respond in much the same way to repel foreign invaders from our homeland” The Toronto-based human rights group is staffed by volunteer veterans of the U.S. and Canadian military.

Veterans Organ Donors International
117 Lakeshore Road East - Suite 339
Toronto, Ontario L5G-4T6
www.VeteranOrganDonors.org
Tel: 905-891-1981

VODI is a volunteer group of U.S. and Canadian military veterans focused on addressing the medical needs of children injured in wars and military conflicts.

This release was published on openPR.