[News] Ex-US marine: I killed Iraqi civilians

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Ex-US marine: I killed Iraqi civilians
by
Wednesday 08 December 2004 5:12 AM GMT


A former US marine has said his unit killed more than 30 innocent Iraqi 
civilians in just two days.

In graphic testimony presented to a Canadian asylum tribunal on Monday, 
Sergeant Jimmy Massey's evidence appeared to bolster war crime claims made 
by fugitive US paratrooper Jeremy Hinzman.

The 26-yea-old Hinzman said he would face persecution if sent home to the 
US, in a politically charged case which could set a precedent for at least 
two other American deserters seeking asylum in Canada.

Massey told Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) that men under his 
command in the 3rd battalion, Seventh Marines, killed 30-plus civilians 
within 48 hours while on checkpoint duty in Baghdad.

"I do know that we killed innocent civilians," he said, relating the 
chaotic days after the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Unknown enemy

Massey said in some incidents Iraqi civilians were killed by between 200 
and 500 rounds pumped into four separate cars which each failed to respond 
to a single warning shot or respond to hand signals at a Baghdad checkpoint.

At the time, US soldiers feared bombers would try to ram checkpoints, he 
said. Searches found no weapons in the vehicles or evidence that those 
killed were anything but innocent civilians, he added.

"I was never clear on who was the enemy and who was not. When you don't 
know who the enemy is, what are you doing there?"



He said marines also killed four unarmed demonstrators and more Iraqis the 
following day during another spell of checkpoint duty in the Iraqi capital.

"I was never clear on who was the enemy and who was not," said Massey.

"When you don't know who the enemy is, what are you doing there?" asked the 
12-year marine veteran, later honourably discharged from the service with 
severe depression and post traumatic stress disorder.

Hinzman case

Hinzman earlier argued at the tribunal, which started on Monday and was due 
to end on Wednesday, that he gradually realised after joining the army in 
2001 that he could not bring himself to kill another person.

"I was faced with being deployed to Iraq to do what the infantry does, kill 
people, and I had no justification for doing so," said Hinzman.

Hinzman, his wife and two-year-old son arrived in Canada early this year, 
after deserting from his unit, an action which carries a maximum five-year 
jail term.



You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/73A4FF53-81F7-4FA0-B02B-3681C801F778.htm 



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