Letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld - Human Rights Watch

[45th Med]

January 12, 2004

We are writing you with regard to several incidents in Iraq involving actions by United States forces that appear to violate the 1949 Geneva Conventions. These incidents involve the demolition of homes of Iraqis on at least four recent occasions in situations that did not meet the test of military necessity, but rather appeared to be for the purpose of punishing or compelling the cooperation of the family in question. In two of these incidents, U.S. forces also reportedly detained close relatives of a person that the U.S. was attempting to apprehend. In these cases the individuals detained were themselves not suspected of responsibility for any wrongdoing.

Human Rights Watch Letter to Rumsfeld