Media killings will haunt United States says IFJ as spain orders arrest of

The tragic events of April 8th 2003 when three journalists were killed by

American military in Baghdad will haunt the United States until it carries

out independent inquiries into the deaths, says the International Federation

of Journalists today following the news that Spain has issued warrants for

the arrest of three soldiers.

The IFJ says that there are 18 deaths of journalists and media staff at the

hands of US soldiers since the invasion of Iraq that still require proper

investigation. One of those cases involves ITN Cameraman Fred Nerac who was

killed three years ago, but whose body was never found and whose death was

confirmed yesterday by French authorities.

The events in Baghdad on April 8th when a US tank fired on the Palestine

Hotel, a media center in the heart of Baghdad, killing Spanish cameraman

Jose Couso and Reuters journalist Taras Protsyuk and an earlier attack on

the offices of Al-Jazeera television which killed reporter Tareq Ayyoub were

highlighted yesterday when Spanish judge Santiago Pedraz called for the

extradition of three soldiers to face charges of murder and a "crime against

the international community."

"This decision is a victory for those campaigning for justice and the truth

behind the killings of media staff," said Aidan White, IFJ General

Secretary. "There must be an end to the arrogant disregard by the United

States authorities of the outrage felt by many in journalism over the sense

that these deaths have not been fully explained and that the responsible

authorities have not been made accountable."

The arrest warrants have been issued against Sgt. Thomas Gibson, a tank

commander, and his superior officers Captain Philip Wolford and Lt Colonel

Philip D. Camp, all of them assigned to the 3rd infantry division which

carried out the attack. The examining magistrate in Spain issued the

warrants after failed attempts to question the soldiers over the Palestine

Hotel attack. The United States authorities refused to respond to requests

for access to the men.

"Although this court action only concerns the death of Jose Couso," said

White, "every journalist and media worker killed or injured in all of these

incidents has a stake in the demand that the United States comes clean about

every case in which there are unanswered questions."

For the past two years world-wide protests have been organised by

journalists' unions on April 8th over the US failure to carry out

independent and extensive inquiries into the media deaths. "These protests

will continue until justice is delivered," said White.

Meanwhile, the IFJ said the news about cameraman Fred Nerac, who with

reporter Terry Lloyd and translator Hussein Osman was one of three members

of an ITN team killed in a fire fight near Basra on March 21st 2003, drew to

a close a period of painful uncertainty about his fate. "Our thoughts today are with his wife Fabienne and his children," said

White. "But now we must redouble our efforts to find out what really

happened on the road to Basra on that fateful day."