Dear Secretary Rumsfeld:
The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the events of March
4 when a car carrying the freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena came
under fire from U.S. forces while en route to Baghdad International
Airport. Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari was killed and Sgrena,
a reporter for the Rome-based daily Il Manifesto, was wounded.
Sgrena, who was held by kidnappers for a month, had just been released.
CPJ is writing to you to reiterate our call for a vigorous and open
investigation of all questions regarding the shooting. Such an inquiry
is made all the more necessary by conflicting accounts of the circumstances.
According to a statement issued by the U.S. Army's Third Infantry Division,
soldiers tried to warn the driver to stop before firing at the vehicle's
engine block. "About 9 p.m., a patrol in western Baghdad observed the
vehicle speeding towards their checkpoint and attempted to warn the
driver to stop by hand-and-arm signals, flashing white lights, and firing
warning shots in front of the car," the statement said.
Sgrena has disputed the military's account in published comments. She
said "there was no bright light, no signal" and that her car was traveling
at "regular speed." Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini also challenged
the U.S. account, saying that the car was "traveling at a velocity that
couldn't have been more than 40 kilometers (25 miles) per hour" and
that no attempts were made to warn the driver to stop, The Associated
Press reported today. Fini said Calipari had "made all the necessary
contacts with the U.S. authorities," including officials in charge of
airport security and military forces patrolling the area around the
airport.
Since March 2003, at least nine journalists and two media support staff
have been killed by U.S. forces' fire in Iraq. The circumstances surrounding
some of these incidents suggest that U.S. troops may have used reckless
or indiscriminate force that endangered the lives of all civilians,
including members of the press. In some cases, the circumstances also
suggest a failure by commanders to communicate critical information
to their troops on the ground.
In ongoing discussions with the Pentagon and U.S. military officials
over the past two years, CPJ has urged the military to take steps to
improve communication between soldiers and journalists in the field,
and to closely examine its rules of engagement to reduce the likelihood
that civilians, including journalists, would be killed. CPJ has also
called for comprehensive investigations when journalists are fired on
by U.S. forces.
We urge you to ensure that the military inquiry now under way in the
Sgrena shooting fully and appropriately considers the conflicting accounts
of Friday's incident, and that investigators interview all witnesses
and review all evidence in determining the facts. We also urge that
the results of the investigation be made public in a timely manner.
We await your response and the results of your investigation.
Sincerely,
Ann Cooper
Executive Director
