 |
|
Brother of the killed Spanish cameramen branded the finding as a "lie" coving up "a war crime"
|
PARIS,
August 13 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The United States
came under fire Wednesday, August 13, from media watchdogs and
families of reporters killed by U.S. soldiers in an unjustified attack
on a reporter hotel in down town Baghdad shortly after the Iraqi
capital fell to the American occupation forces.
A
U.S. military inquiry has exonerated an American tank crew for firing
on a Baghdad
hotel housing journalists which killed an Ukrainian cameraman for
Reuters television, 35-year-old Taras Protsyuk, and a Spaniard working
for the Spanish television network Telecinco, 37-year-old Jose Couso,
and wounded three other Reuters journalists.
Also
on the same day, U.S. missiles hit the Baghdad offices
of Al-Jazeera television killing reporter Tareq
Ayub and wounding Zuheir al-Iraqi tin what the Qatar-based Arabic
news network charged was a deliberate strike.
The
U.S. Central Command said in a statement Tuesday, August 12, that its
probe into the April 8 attack concluded that the tank crew had acted
properly when it fired a 120mm shell into an upper floor of the
Palestine Hotel that served as a base of operations for most foreign
media covering the war in Iraq.
It
claimed the crew had believed they were shooting at an enemy
"hunter/killer team" directing Iraqi fire to their position,
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The
statement argued the enquiry found the American troops had made
"a proportionate and justifiably measured response."
But
the media watchdog group Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), or Reporters
Without Borders, assailed the finding and said it was carrying out its
own inquiry to be released next month.
"To
say such a thing is tantamount to lying. There is nothing to support
such a version" said RSF secretary general Robert Menard.
He
stressed that while the attack may not have been deliberate, a full
inquiry was necessary to clear up any questions surrounding the
opening of fire at a reporters hotel.
The
U.S. military's version has been disputed by many of the other 100
foreign journalists in the hotel.
Video
footage from France 3 television showed the tank turn and raise its
turret, wait two minutes, then fire.
An
AFP correspondent who was at the hotel during the attack, Jacques
Charmelot, said the U.S. report was "a white wash and a pure
fabrication" and "baseless".
He
added that it contradicted a report on the incident by the New
York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
That
report, released in May, found "there is simply no evidence to
support the official U.S. position that U.S. forces were returning
hostile fire from the Palestine Hotel."
Reporters
in the hotel saw no sign of fire originating from the hotel nor any
Iraqi spotters in the building, which had been repeatedly identified
in news reports as a media base.
"War
Crime"
The
brother of the killed Spanish cameramen blasted the inquiry's finding
as a "lie" which sought to cover up "a war crime."
The
Spanish government, which backed the U.S.-led war, and Telecinco
refused to comment on the conclusions of the American enquiry.
A
spokesman for Reuters in London said the British news agency wanted to
read the U.S. report before commenting and was urging the American
authorities to release it.
He
added that Reuters had conducted its own investigation and found the
deaths were the result of "a communication breakdown"
between U.S. commanders aware of the journalists in the hotel and tank
crews who were not.
Colleagues
of Protsyuk in Reuters's bureau in the Ukrainian capital Kiev said
they were not satisfied with the U.S. military inquiry.
"In
our opinion, what happened was the result of a lack of sufficient
coordination between the U.S. troops," bureau chief Taras
Kirichenko told the Novy Kanal television station.
The
Ukrainian government said it had been informed of the U.S. findings
but made no further comment.
Click
to watch
