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Thank you to everybody who came out on August 19th to remember Abeer Hamza and to speak out against the inhumane violence subjected onto the people of Iraq. The vigils were extraordinarily powerful and we hope that they helped bring her soul closer to peace.
However, we also hope that the outrage of her death did not end on August 19th and instead grew into a collective force to end the onslaught of pain and suffering to the citizens of Iraq.
We ask that everyone continues to visit this page and pass on the word to as many people as possible. On our part, we will commit to updating the page on both her trial, as well as the effort to end immunity for MNF's in Iraq.
Thank you and Peace to all
What happenend to Abeer Hamza?
Abeer Qassim Hamza was a 14 year old Iraqi girl who lived in the village of Al-Mahmoudiyah, southeast of Baghdad. On March 12th Abeer was raped and then burnt and killed in her home. Her mother, father, and younger sister were also shot to death, leaving her two younger brothers parentless.
In early July, four US soldiers, and one ex-soldier, were charged with these crimes. Previous to the charges, the ex-soldier, Steven Green, was discharged from the Army for a personality disorder.
With the exception of Steven Green, all those involved with the crime will be tried in a military court. The proceedings will be kept confidential, rising doubt as to whether or not a thorough independent investigation will take place. We want to make sure that Abeer, her family, and the tens of thousands of victims of violence in Iraq are not forgotten.
On August 19th, Abeer Hamza would have been 15 years old. In rememberance, we are planning candle light vigils in Los Angeles, Berkeley, and New York. We hope that you will join us in honoring her, her family, and the thousands of Iraqi civilians subjected to violence. (Further details about specific locations will be posted shortly)
There are only a few of us organizing these vigils; you can find Natali Clarke & Shadi Shariat's personal Myspace pages under Abeer's friends. The other organizers are Nicole, Melani, Maria, Lili, and Safoura. Thanks to Ramin for his help
Links:
- Details of crime: http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/07/09/soldiers.charged/index.htm l
-Live interview regarding eyewitnesses from the crime [Click on "Segment" and start listening at 25:00 min]: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/11/144208&a mp;mode=thread&tid=25
- Profile of Ex-Soldier Steven Green: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_D._Green
- Why the army accepted Steven Green: http://www.harpers.org/sb-six-questions-eli-flyer.html
- Details of crime: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/19288DCA-8D9C-48E6-B6 7F-F6E4F7D7A544.htm
