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‘Absence
Of Witnesses’ In Najaf Battle Slammed
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RSF
warned atrocities could be committed in Najaf in view of a media
blackout
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PARIS,
August 16 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – As violent but
sporadic clashes broke out in the strife-torn Iraqi city of Najaf
Monday, August 16, between Shiite fighters and US-backed Iraqi forces,
a media rights watchdog warned that in the absence of “witnesses”
atrocities could be committed.
Tank
and automatic gunfire could be heard throughout the Old City as plumes
of smoke spewed into the sky, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Gunfire
boomed across Najaf Sunday, August 15, a day after the interim
government said its offensive against Shiite militiamen would continue
in the wake of failed peace talks.
An
AFP correspondent heard tank fire and saw smoke rising from the
direction of the vast cemetery, north of the holy shrine of Imam Ali,
which has been a militia stronghold since a spring uprising against
foreign troops.
In
Baghdad, the Iraqi National Conference put
forward
Monday a new peace initiative with Shiite leader Moqtada Al-Sadr to
defuse a 12-day standoff in the holy city of An-Najaf.
The
US occupation forces launched
a sweeping offensive
Thursday, August 12, in a bid to crush down the uprising of the Mahdi
Army.
Iraqi
Sunni and Shiite leaders slammed what they saw as a “bloodbath”
and called upon the international community to step in to rein the
Americans.
The
bloody US raid, described by law experts as amounting
to genocide,
came amid signs of serious cracks among the ranks of the Iraqi
government.
‘Absence
Of Witnesses’
The
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF), meanwhile, condemned
Sunday the decision by the Iraqi government to order journalists out
of Najaf, ahead of a planned massive onslaught on the city.
“We
condemn the totally unacceptable imposition of an information
blackout. This is an unprecedented decision in Iraq,” it said in a
statement carried by AFP.
It
urged the Iraqi government to immediately reverse the move, which
preceded the resumption of bloody battles in Najaf.
“The
presence of journalists on the spot is indispensable as the worst
atrocities are always committed in the absence of witnesses,” said
the secretary general of RSF, Robert Menard.
“The
reporters must be the only ones to judge whether they should leave for
security reasons,” he added.
Arrest
On Air
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Tensions
in Najaf running high
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Iraqi
and foreign journalists, including an AFP correspondent, left the
flashpoint city on Sunday under the threat of arrest by police who had
ordered them out.
Najaf
police chief General Ghaleb Al-Jazairi gave the journalists two hours
to leave for their own safety, saying he had information that they
were being targeted by a massive car bomb.
A
journalist for the Arabic service of Iran's state broadcaster was
detained live on television Sunday.
Mohammad
Kazem, an Iraqi correspondent of Iran's Al-Alam channel, was detained
at gunpoint by Iraqi police during the live interview from a Najaf
rooftop.
Najaf
has become a virtual ghost town, with all but the hardiest of
residents fleeing the deadly clashes.
Buses
and taxes crammed with possessions poured out of the Old City
throughout the morning as US troops and Iraqi security personnel
massed around the edge.
Interim
Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi ordered
August 7 Al-Jazeera satellite channel to close its offices in Baghdad
for a month only one day after US Secretary Donald Rumsfeld launched a
fresh bitter attack on the all-news Arab channel.
On
April 8, 2003, a hotel housing foreign
media in Baghdad was raided by US invading forces, killing and
wounding several reporters, only one day before US tanks surprisingly rolled
into the
Iraqi capital.
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