By Cliff Kindy
Christian Peacemaker Teams
February 24, 2004

Said Salah is a farmer with his father and uncles in a rural area outside of Kerbala. During the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 soldiers attacked and bombed this farm. Sixteen family members died in the attack and another nine were injured. The house was demolished and furniture and belongings were destroyed. In addition, the attack killed 75 sheep. Shepherding is one of the ways he makes his living.

Four days after the war he went to Iraqi Human Rights Watch, in Kerbala, to document the tragedy. Media from around the world carried stories of the event. Then Human Rights Watch International visited his farm. Human rights workers found unexploded ordnance on the farm and he was able to report to them that he knew the locations of six mass graves from the 1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein.

The United States is pushing the documentation of the deaths by the Saddam Hussein regime in the 1991 uprising and, with the interim Iraqi Government, has established a committee to find the disappeared from those years. War crimes charges are being brought against members of the Iraqi Government from the Hussein years. Nevertheless, the United States has refused to offer compensation for any damages or deaths that occurred during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Said Salah has received no help from the U.S. military, from the Interim Iraqi government, or from anybody else. He, as a Shi’a Muslim, told CPTers in Kerbala, “Jesus gave his life for peace. The lives of my family were given for peace. Let the Christians of the world hear my story.”

He continued, “Nothing can replace my lost family members. I need no compensation. I only want people to understand how this affects my heart.”