The Hindu : International : U.S. soldier jailed for killing Iraqi teenager

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 12, 2004

International

International

U.S. soldier jailed for killing Iraqi teenager

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA, DEC.11. Amid the controversy surrounding the conviction of an American soldier for killing an Iraqi teenager, Iraq's Sunni and Shia communities are airing their fears about the upcoming elections scheduled next month.

Johnny Horne Jr., a U.S. soldier has been imprisoned for three years following the murder of a seriously wounded 16-year-old Iraqi.

The accused pleaded guilty to the unpremeditated murder of an Iraqi civilian in Baghdad's Sadr City suburb on August 18.

His defence described the death of the wounded Iraqi as "mercy killing" in collusion with another soldier.

Mr. Horne was also demoted and given a "dishonourable discharge." American soldiers are facing trial in about a dozen cases over the killing or abuse of Iraqi civilians.

Meanwhile, Iraq's upcoming elections at the end of next month are generating a fierce internal debate within Iraq's Shia and Sunni communities.

The Shia cleric, Moqtada Al Sadr, whose followers are not contesting the elections, has explained the reasons for his decision. Advocating a non-sectarian approach, Mr. Al Sadr, has said that the elections could lead to an ethnic partition of Iraq. "Beware, beware lest ethnic divisions have a place in the elections," he said in a written sermon read by Sheikh Abd al-Zuhrah al-Suwaidi at the Muhsin Mosque in Sadr City on Friday. The cleric also offered to protect Iraq's churches, some of which have been attacked in Baghdad and Mosul. "I am entirely prepared to provide protection to the churches if our Christian brethren want it."

Mr. Al Sadr pointed out that that many of his followers continued to remain under arrest. Besides he had not been permitted to open an office in Najaf or hold Friday prayers in the Kufa Mosque.

Iraq's top Shia spiritual leader, Ali Sistani , on his part, has expressed his anxiety about the fairness of the upcoming election.

His representative Shaikh Abd al-Mahdi al-Karbalai, has emphasised that elections should be free and fair. "Otherwise they will be fruitless. Indeed, they may backfire on the Iraqi people if there is any cheating or fraud."

Poll boycott

Sunni advocates of the poll boycott say that they have opposed the elections because it was impossible to hold a fair poll in the existing circumstances. Muthanna Harith Al-Dari, the spokesman of Iraq's Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) has said that his organisation opposed elections purely for technical and logical reasons, and not, as the Americans claim, for rejecting any political process.

He pointed out that the United Nations, which had sent only seven observers, who would not be in any position to monitor the ballots.

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