US Murder of Civilian Journalists - Will The Murderers Confess?
Jei
Was Jose Couso's Death in Iraq a War Crime?
By Martine Silber
Le Monde
Monday 20 October 2003
"Its a small victory", David Couso declared when he learned that
the judge in the Spanish National Audience had agreed to admit the
familys complaint for a war crime against three soldiers of the
United States Armys Third Infantry Division. His brother, José
Couso, a cameraman for the Spanish private television station
Telecinco, was killed along with Taras Protsyuk, a journalist from
the American agency, Reuters, April 8 in Baghdad, after an American
Army tank opened fire on the Palestine Hotel where the majority of
the international press was staying.
José Cousos death and that the day before of the El Mundo
newspapers special envoy, Julio Laguita, had provoked a strike of
the Spanish press when the government refused to demand an
inquest. Journalists left cameras, video cameras, notebooks and
pencils on the ground on several occasions during official
demonstrations,. Each time, the response of José Maria Aznars
government was the same: The United States government claims it
was a mistake and we have no reason to doubt that was the case.
José Cousos friends didnt give up. Every Tuesday at noon they
gather in Madrid in front of the ruling Popular Party headquarters
and the 8th of each month in front of the U.S. embassy. There were
more than a thousand people on October 8th.
The next day in Baghdad, Telecinco broadcast a report that tried
to reconstitute what happened. A journalist on José Cousos team,
Jon Sistiaga, said he was convinced that the attack was deliberate
and another colleague added: The Americans didnt want us to witness
the massacre that was about to take place.
Ann Cooper, Director of the Committee for the Protection of
Journalists, stated that the attitude of the American authorities
posed the question of determining whether the army takes the
necessary precautions to avoid putting journalists lives in
danger. Its an urgent question: hundreds of journalists continue
to work in Iraq and their reporting is vital to any understanding
of whats happening there.
______________________________________________________________
Translation: Truthout French language correspondent Leslie Thatcher