ABU HISHMA (Iraq): For two months, this village, blessed with orange orchards and date groves, has been surrounded by a razor wire fence. The enclosure is a story of how Americans have used tough measures in their bid to defeat an ugly nine-month insurgency.

But the US military commander in this area has also introduced an even more radical measure, demanding that 126 tribal leaders sign a contract to stop the violence in their tiny Iraqi farm village or go to jail.

The tactics have evoked comparisons with Israel's hard-nosed methods in the occupied Palestinian territories and stirred accusations from rights groups of collective punishment. But US troops feel they had no choice left to them after trying to work with Abu Hishma since the summer. Lieutenant Colonel Nate Sassaman said he believed the contract was the only way to break a guerrilla cell in the village. A code of silence had stopped anyone from coming forward with information on the death of one of his soldiers, killed on November 17 by a rocket-propelled grenade.

The ambush shattered what Sassaman called his "Ramazan peace treaty" in which he lifted the village's night curfew, ended patrols and donated funds to local prayer leaders.

Sassaman had unveiled the "treaty" just ahead of the holiday at an October town hall meeting where he offered locals a meal of lamb, rice and soda. The lieutenant colonel, from the 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry, hoped it would be the start of a new era.

"When I had the large meeting, I said if we have violence during Ramazan, the curfew is on, we'll go back to constant patrolling and we'll look at the potential of the village possibly being relocated," he said.

Sassaman had threatened to displace the 7,000 residents from their village, 75 kilometres north of Baghdad, if mortar attacks did not stop on nearby Base Anaconda, a key coalition supply hub and air strip.

And after insurgents killed one of his men, Sassaman was determined to make the village pay the price. "They basically broke the peace agreement we had," Sassaman said. So he erected the razor wire fence, set up one village entry point and did not allow men inside except those with newly issued identification cards giving their name, age and the kind of car they drive.

He detained the local town council and the police chief for 72 hours. And he opted for erecting the razor wire fencing, copying the model used in late October to subdue Auja, Saddam Hussein's home village to the north. Still, no one came forward with information on the guerrillas. So Sassaman chose to draft the contract for the village. He called the terms an "Iraqi solution" proposed to him by an influential Abu Hishma sheikh now living in Baghdad.

The first week of December, Sassaman brought the sheikhs to his base. They presented their demands - lifting the curfew, removing the razor wire and ending the patrols.

Then Sassaman delivered his terms: prevent attacks in your area or the coalition would "deliver a punishment of whatever we choose" - most probably jail.

"A lot of them were coming up and saying 'kill me, kill me if it comes from my area,'" Sassaman said, recalling the talks. "I would tell them don't say that, but we will make you accountable for any ... violence."

About 26 sheikhs refused to attend the meeting, but almost all of them headed to the base the next day and signed. Dr Farhan Mahmoud al-Tamimi, a professor of Islamic law at Tikrit University and a member of the local council, is one who refused. "They treat us like the Palestinians. They have destroyed our homes and farms," he said in Abu Hishma on Wednesday.

Tamimi admitted he was afraid the Americans might come after him now for not signing the document. "I'm scared because I didn't sign it." And apparently, with good reason.

Sassaman accused Tamimi on Wednesday of disappearing after the attack on US soldiers in mid-November and said he wanted "to go down and talk with him."

One Abu Hishma leader who signed the contract, Saleh Knief Diab, says none of the leaders had a choice. Tanks patrolled their village every day and they were worried Sassaman would make good on his threats to expel the residents of Abu Hishma.

"There was no debate. We did what they asked," he said. "They threatened to transfer us to Diyala to a camp where they set up 1,000 tents." But Diab said Sassaman also promised that if calm prevailed, the military would start spending money on reconstruction projects. So far, they are still waiting.

On Wednesday night, Sassaman said he had now lined the money up to begin projects and hoped to hire locals to repave the village's road within weeks and to pull down the razor wire by the end of February.

But he described both himself and Abu Hishma residents as happy with the status quo. Locals have turned in seven of the nine men who attacked his soldiers.

"They (Iraqis) don't want the wire forever, but they want it for now because of the security it provides the community," he said. "At some point, the wire will come down."-AFP