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Second Iraqi woman says soldiers raped her

An Iraqi police official says the assault was recorded on a phone camera.

By WASHINGTON POST
Published February 23, 2007

BAGHDAD - An Iraqi police official in the northeastern city of Tal Afar said Thursday that a military officer and three soldiers had admitted to raping a Sunni woman and recording the act with a cell phone camera.

The four soldiers told an investigative committee convened by the Iraqi army that they sexually assaulted the woman nearly two weeks ago, according to Gen. Najem Abdullah, a police spokesman in Tal Afar.

The soldiers' admission follows another Sunni woman's assertion this week that she had been raped in Baghdad by members of Iraq's predominately Shiite security forces. Iraq's Kurdish president and its Sunni vice president said Thursday that a judge should investigate her case, which the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has dismissed as groundless.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said in a statement that the courts were "the only legitimate place to examine such allegations" and that the government should avoid steps that would "inflame sensitivities and create mistrust."

Talabani's stance, echoed by Vce President Tarik al-Hashimi, is sharply at odds with Maliki's insistence that the 20-year-old Baghdad woman who contends three Iraqi policemen raped her Sunday is a criminal who fabricated the story to exacerbate sectarian tension and undermine a U.S. and Iraqi security plan to pacify the capital.

The case has caused a political uproar - with Sunnis demanding justice and Shiites defending the officers - in a society where public discussion of rape is rare.

"In this country (rape) is more serious than any other crime," said Wamid Nadhme, a political scientist at Baghdad University. "The religious values and the honor values say that one should not violate a woman. This will have very serious implications in coming days if neither side is able to prove that they are right and the other side is wrong."

The day after the Baghdad woman's allegation came to light Maliki said the accused officers deserved to be honored. He said the government will sue her for making the claim.

The U.S. military said Wednesday it would investigate the woman's allegations. The woman was treated at a U.S. military-run medical facility in the fortified Green Zone.

In Tal Afar, Khalid Mohammed Hassan, a civic activist, called the rape case there "a very dangerous crime, and a very ugly crime."

"Such ugly practices will push the citizens to not cooperate with the security forces," he said.

The Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni insurgent group, issued an audio statement on its Web site Thursday saying 300 insurgents have volunteered to conduct suicide operations to avenge the alleged rape of the woman who came forward Monday. At least 50 are from the woman's tribe and 20 offered to marry her if she's single, the statement says.

[Last modified February 23, 2007, 01:34:25]