Local residents apologize to Iraqis
By RICHIE DAVIS (published 3/18/04 in the Recorder)
Recorder Staff
Conway artist Ann Gibson says she felt devastated as she read this winter of a military attack that uprooted ancient groves of date palms and orange and lemon trees in central Iraq last fall.
"To
Americans, clearing the five-acre field was necessary to protect troops' lives.
To Iraqis, it was a form of collective punishment, especially after they failed
to provide information about the guerrillas attacking U.S. forces," the
newspaper reported.
As
the United States approaches the one-year anniversary of the war, Gibson said
the Dhuluaya bulldozing stands out as a startling assault on farmers.
Gibson,
who grows much of her own food, says she was numbed by learning - from an essay
by the Rev. John Roach of St. Joseph's Church in Shelburne Falls - about the
farmers, whose livelihoods were destroyed along with trees that had been in
their families for generations.
"It
was particularly touching to me," said Gibson, who contacted fellow Conway
resident Mary McClintock to help her research the incident. "I appreciate
the work of farmers. Growing food means a lot to me."
The
incident got little attention in the media. With McClintock, who has been
involved in weekly protests against the Iraq war and who is a writer and a
researcher, Gibson found another account of the incident in the British
newspaper, The Independent.
"The
stumps of palm trees, some 70 years old, protrude from the brown earth scoured
by the bulldozers beside the road at Dhuluaya, a small town 50 miles north of
Baghdad," the newspaper reported, "as part of a new policy of
collective punishment of farmers who do not give information about guerrillas
attacking U.S. troops."
It
quotes Nusayef Jassim, one of 32 farmers who saw their fruit trees destroyed,
saying: "They told us that the resistance fighters hide in our farms, but
this is not true. They didn't capture anything. They didn't find any
weapons."
The
article reported that ambushes of U.S. troops have taken place around Dhuluaya,
and quoted one man as saying, "They made a sort of joke against us by
playing jazz music while they were cutting down the trees."
The
Newsday account reported that in Dhuluaya, part of the "Sunni
Triangle," north and west of Baghdad where U.S. forces have faced stiff
opposition, the American operation is compared to similar destruction of olive
groves by Israeli forces in the Palestinian territories. Yet, it reported,
insurgents take cover in thick orchards from which they can easily slip away
after ambushing U.S. soldiers.
"But informing U.S. commanders about the identity of Iraqi guerrillas would be dangerous in Iraqi villages, where most people are related and everyone knows each other," reporter Mohamad Bazzi wrote. "The farmers who lost their orchards all belong to the Khazraji tribe and are unlikely to give information about fellow tribesmen if they are the ones attacking U.S. forces."
Collective
punishment of Iraqi farmers who don't provide information to the military,
Roach wrote in December, "will only prove to be counterproductive. The
livelihood of so many poor Iraq citizens is being destroyed in the name of
freedom and liberation. Such a strategy signifies an abysmal failure to even attempt
to understand the culture and interconnectedness of Iraqi people.
"Our
present strategy, tactic and military policy in Iraq can only spawn and breed
hatred, resentment and fallow a fertile ground for more terrorism and attacks
on American troops."
Gibson
said, "We wanted to express our grief and our sadness at this." She
and McClintock wrote an apology to the people of Dhuluaya. It read:
"We
write with great sadness about and sincere apologies for the destruction of
your fruit trees last October.
"We
are American citizens who know that you and your trees are not our enemies. We
abhor the actions of the U.S. military to destroy your trees and your way of
making a living for your families. We work hard to support our neighbors who
are farmers and we know that, like them, you are serving your families and the
people of your country by growing food for us all to eat."
The
two women have circulated the letter to neighbors, farmers and other residents
around the Pioneer Valley, and plan to send Gibson's illustrated copy, signed
by about 85 people, to Iraq next week with the help of an American Friends
Service Committee delegation.
McClintock,
who spent a year irrigating orange groves in California, said, "I had a
very visceral reaction" as she learned about the Iraqi attack.
She
recently visited the California groves, and met with the 85-year-old farmer she
had worked for.
"What
would Hal have felt like if they said, 'We're taking down your groves?'"
she asked. "It gives me goose-bumps."
Beyond
the humanitarian concerns which led her to send an apology for the military
action "being done in my name," McClintock raised concerns that it
adds to the animosity ordinary Iraqis feel against Americans.
"What
would that have made them feel like?" she asked. "We're just breeding
terror. I hope that people are starting to get it, that this is messing us
up" and making us more insecure.
Gibson
said she and McClintock are asking members of the state's congressional
delegation to call for an investigation and for reparations for the farmers.
You
can reach Richie Davis at: rdavis@recorder.com
or (413) 772-0261 Ext.269