Kurdish family wants to know why US killed one of their own 6.7.2005

His son Salah, a 49-year-old Swiss university professor and businessman, was killed early on June 28, a day after returning to Baghdad. A US bullet tore through the back of his skull.

He had lived in Geneva for 24 years and represented Iraqi Kurds at the United Nations from 1982-1992.

He had also played a key role in revealing the poison gas attack attributed to Saddam Hussein's forces against the Kurdish village of Halabja in 1988 that killed 5,000 people.

A week ago, Salah was driving along a highway with his brother, Abdul Jabbar, 38. Their car was coming down an incline as a US convoy arrived from below to their right.

"I was driving and I heard the clap of one shot. My brother fell over into my lap. I didn't even know who had fired because we were slightly higher than the Americans. Then I saw blood flowing," said Abdul, still shocked by his own story.

The police sealed off the road and the US convoy came back.

"Two or three soldiers got out, saw my brother was dead and said: 'We're sorry,' just like that.

"Then an ambulance took his body away."

Three days after AFP asked the US military for information about the shooting, none has been provided, nor has an official statement been issued.

Switzerland's foreign minister met Tuesday with the US ambassador to seek an explanation.

During an "in depth discussion," Micheline Calmy-Rey informed Ambassador Pamela Willeford of her concern and asked for a rapid clarification, ministry spokesman Ivo Sieber said.

US embassy spokesman Daniel Wendell said Washington was still gathering information on Salah's death and that it would be premature to say how long the probe might take.

On Sunday, Switzerland said the United States had expressed its regrets but had offered no explanation

Salah's widow, Taban, a 38-year-old mother of three who has lived in Switzerland since 1990 and is now a Swiss national, is determined to fight to the last.

"I'm not counting on the Iraqi authorities who are in (US President George Bush's pocket. I put my faith in the Swiss government because it is the country of human rights and justice.

"I ask it to obtain justice for my husband and my sons."

The Swiss foreign ministry urged Washington on Sunday to give a clear explication for the shooting.

Another of the victim's brothers, Sabah, said representatives sent to the funeral told him Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who is also a Kurd, was "furious".

"He brought it up with Casey but we don't know what came of it."

US General George Casey, commander of the multinational force in Iraq, was in Baghdad Sunday to celebrate US Independence Day.

Sabah, 50 and a surgeon in Britain, insisted his family had never been anti-American.

"On the contrary, we welcomed them, because we thought something good would come from it."

During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, "the family was bombed day and night but we expected everything would be fine.

"We knew people could die but not two years after the war" had ended, he said.

"We want to stop the killing of others. We lost our brother, we are not going to get him back whatever happens. At least we want to put some pressure on these people, the Americans.

"They should realise that people in this country are human beings like themselves. They are no better than the people living in this country.

"They don't have blue blood and these people have blood of a different color. I don't know why they look down on others."

Outside, as neighbors, friends and loved ones come to present their condolences, Sabah added: "We know there are terrorists and insurgents in this country, but that does not give them the right to kill everyone."

AFP

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