Iraq Notebook
Group files Abu Ghraib complaint in Germany

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BERLIN — An American civil-rights group filed a criminal complaint in Germany yesterday alleging Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other U.S. officials condoned torture and human-rights violations at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights and four former Iraqi prisoners filed a 170-page brief asking the German federal prosecutor to investigate Bush administration officials and senior military officers for war crimes and other offenses. Germany has a law that allows its judicial officials to probe human-rights abuses around the world.

The complaint, filed at the federal prosecutor's headquarters in the city of Karlsruhe, details the alleged mistreatment of four Iraqis by U.S. soldiers and intelligence services. The men say they were beaten, given electric shocks, threatened with dogs and doused with cold water.

In 2002, Germany upgraded its code of crimes for international law. The move gave German prosecutors "universal jurisdiction" to investigate war crimes and human-rights violations no matter where they occurred or where the alleged perpetrators lived.

Bronx firefighter killed outside Baghdad

NEW YORK — A Bronx firefighter remembered by his wife as the "ultimate patriot" died outside Baghdad when his Army vehicle rolled over an explosive, killing him and wounding another of the city's Bravest.

Christian Engeldrum, who was a rescue worker at Ground Zero after the Sept. 11 attacks, was part of a convoy of Army National Guardsmen protecting a bridge from insurgents fleeing Fallujah when his unit came under attack Monday and his Humvee rolled over a bomb.

The explosion ripped the armored vehicle in two and hurtled the wounded soldiers onto the street. Three soldiers were killed and 16 more were seriously injured, including New York Firefighter Daniel Swift, 24, authorities said.

Allawi in Jordan, lobbying Sunnis to vote

 
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq's interim prime minister went to Jordan yesterday for meetings with tribal figures and other influential Iraqis in a bid to encourage Sunni Muslims to participate in the Jan. 30 elections, but he ruled out contacts with insurgent leaders and former members of Saddam Hussein's deposed regime.

Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who arrived in Amman late yesterday, sought to play down expectations that his meetings would mark a breakthrough in curbing the violence, saying Jordan was simply the first stop on a tour that would take him to Germany and Russia.

Before leaving Baghdad, Allawi said his government would pursue contacts with "tribal figures" and other influential Iraqis to encourage broad participation in the elections, which some Sunni clerics have threatened to boycott.

But Allawi branded reports that he would meet with former Baath party figures as "an invention by the media," although word of such contacts came last week from the Iraqi Foreign Ministry. Former Baath party leaders are believed to form the core of the insurgency.

Arab officials fear that without some overture by the Iraqi government, many Sunnis may boycott the elections, calling into question the legitimacy of the new administration. Shiites, long suppressed in Iraq, are expecting to take control of the new government by sheer force of numbers, a prospect that has alarmed many Sunni Arabs and Kurds, each of which comprises about 20 percent of the population. Iraq's leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has been encouraging formation of a united Shiite ticket.

However, a coalition of 38 Shiite political parties broke off negotiations with al-Sistani's supporters yesterday, claiming the ayatollah's aides were favoring "extremists."