NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT(?) : Indians mistreated in Iraq

[thecrow]

Concerns Rise Over Treatment of Indians in Iraq


Email this story

May 9, 3:36 am ET

By Terry Friel
VELICHIKKALA, India (Reuters) - Indian police are hunting a jobs agent who duped poor and illiterate workers into going to U.S. army camps in Iraq where they say they ended up trapped for months working as virtual slaves.

Allegations of abuse by U.S. troops told by the first batch of returnees sparked outrage in India last week, drawing comparisons with the treatment of Iraqi prisoners.

At the request of the Indian government, U.S. officials have launched an investigation into the claims.

But the workers, while insisting U.S. troops intimidated and harassed them and that they were not allowed to leave, say they were never abused physically.

Interviews with those at the heart of the complaints indicate the main problems were with the contractor employing them -- on behalf of a unit of U.S. firm Halliburton -- and Iraq's harsh wartime environment and desert climate.
http://news.excite.com/top/article/id/343274|top|05-09-2004::03:46|reuters.html

[VolcanoJen]

1. Finally! I was wondering why nobody's talking about this story.

The basic allegation here is that Halliburton's dirty, greedy, disgusting paws are all over this emerging slave labor issue.

:grr: :mad: :grr:

LBN Thread

Concerns Rise Over Treatment of Indians in Iraq

Reuters story

http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=861776

Excerpt:

Interviews with those at the heart of the complaints indicate the main problems were with the contractor employing them -- on behalf of a unit of U.S. firm Halliburton -- and Iraq's harsh wartime environment and desert climate.

<snip>

Fasil Aliyarukunju and Abdul Azeez Shajahan, two day-wage Muslim butchers from Velichikkala village in the coconut and cashew groves of the southern state of Kerala, say they were tricked into going to Iraq.

They were then kept for nine months working 18 hours a day in U.S. camp kitchens, threatened with beatings and verbally abused by soldiers before their contractor employer let them go home.

They did not abuse us physically," Fasil said, referring to U.S. soldiers.

"The psychological abuse was worse," he said, sitting in a tiny cement-floored hut, the air heavy with wood smoke from cooking fires.

[bigtree]

2. Another take

Probe into Iraq trafficking claims-
From CNN State Department Producer Elise Labott
Wednesday, May 5, 2004

Indian press reports said that Indian nationals in Jordan and Kuwait were recruited for jobs in U.S. military camps in Iraq as cooks, butchers, laundry workers and handymen.

Some of the Indians charge they signed up through Indian employment companies to work in Kuwait, but ended up in Iraq working for low pay and were refused permission to leave the country.

Four Indians claim they escaped from an American military camp in Mosul after enduring a nine-month ordeal, and one man told India's IANS news service that he was forced to cook pork, forbidden under Islam, during the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi began looking into the reports after it was contacted by the Indian government Tuesday.

"Obviously, we take all such reports seriously and will do our best to find out the facts of the matter," said Boucher.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/05/05/iraq.india.trafficking/index.html

Me Book

[acmavm]

3. Well, at least we're an equal opportunity abuser. We'll turn anyone into

slave labor.

[jean]

4. bush's immorality has defiled everything he ever touched -

We need to face this horror squarely and reveal it in every detail to our people.

He and his crew of bastards will be thrown to the gutter in November.

Can we assign a battalion of pristine soldiers, maybe under Wes Clark's command, to protect the White House and democracy at large, until these filthy corporatistas actually leave in January?