The riots across Iraq in the past two days in which unclear Iraqi casualties were caused were a mere example of the heavy-handedness used by the US-led coalition forces in their treatment of Iraqis.

Three Iraqis were reportedly to have been killed in Baghdad and southeastern Iraqi city of Basra Saturday, when American and British troops opened fire on former Iraqi former soldiers who came to receive their promised payments.

The Americans and Englishmen unscrupulously opened fire on the demonstrators who protested excessive use of brute force by the coalition forces against Iraqis.

The southern central cities of Nassiriya and Hilla also saw mass demonstrations Saturday and Sunday in protest of ill-treatment of Iraqis by the coalition forces.

These and other cases of American and British heavy-handedness are almost daily occurrence in various Iraqi cities and towns to the extent that the number of Iraqis killed daily by armed fires in Baghdad alone jumped to more than 30 times compared with the pre-war period, according to authentic sources.

Not this alone, the Americans badly mauled members of Iraqi families, including old men, children and women, when these troops carried out unwarranted searches in houses and apartments under the pretext of pursuing wanted men or in search of unlicensed weapons. Iraqi press is full of stories about such heavy-handed treatment and of valuables, such as money and jewellery, of these families being "stolen" during such searches by the coalition forces.

To humiliate Iraqis, American troops used to put black bags on the heads of those arrested, tie their hands to their backs and force them to sit down on the ground for hours under the searing summer heat in front of their family members.

Complaints over such American heavy-handedness have been heard from widely-divergent quarters, including the American-handpicked Iraqi Governing Council, which raised the matter with the highest American authorities, including commander of the US Central Command General John Abizaid, during one of his recent visits to Iraq.

Commander of the US ground forces in Iraq Ricardo Sanchez admitted that his troops are using what he termed as the "ironfist" policy in their treatment of the Iraqis.

Although he promised to abandon such a policy in favor of a more softy-softy treatment, things on the ground remain unchanged more than a month after this promise.

Observers believe that the heavy-handedness with which the American troops are treating Iraqis plays into the hands of those unknown armed men who carried out almost daily armed attacks on the US-led coalition forces in Iraq.

It also further antagonizes Iraqi people whom the Coalition Provisional Authority headed by the US diplomat Paul Bremer seeks to win over heart and mind.
 
(Xinhua News Agency October 7, 2003)