Written and translated into English by: Eman A. Khammas

Professor Aamer Abboud Al-Douri in the university.

As everybody knows, before the occupation, the Iraqi government was accused of possessing weapons of mass destruction, of supporting terrorism, and of human rights violations, and that Iraq was put under criminal sanctions for that. It has become well-known later that all these allegations were lies fabricated by the U.S. administration, and that U.S. officials were actually joking about them privately, at least that’s what their official testimonies themselves showed later. The actual target was the destruction of Iraq as a regional power, because no matter what evidence Iraq provided on the invalidity of those falsehoods, the U.S. raised their demands further, in a macabre and farcical play that cost the Iraqi people millions of its lives and the assassination of an entire country: state, institutions, economy, future...and so forth.

Let’s notice now what happened in Hawija on the night of 22-23 April 2024, according to the testimony the Minister of Education, Mohammad Tamim, who resigned in protest against the massacre, and who was acting as a mediator between the peaceful protesters and the troops which besieged the city square.

First the peaceful protesters were besieged for four days and were prevented from food, water and medicine (the same way Iraqi people were sanctioned before the occupation). The declared reason for this measure was that there were “terrorists” among the protesters, who denied that and opened the square for inspection unconditionally (as the Iraqi government did during the sanctions before the occupation, in fact it was proved that Iraq had even volunteered to help against international terrorism). The government forces rejected that saying that there are some who carried weapons among the demonstrators. Again, the demonstrators denied and invited the troops to enter and inspect the square, saying that if the troops find even a shaving razor or a kitchen knife, they will have the right to do whatever they wanted (in fact the protestors had erected the kitchen tent at a distance of more than 150 meters from the square to avoid such a situation).

But because the forces came originally to ignite war against the protesters, they raised their demands to end the sit-in protest and immediately remove tents (as it happened before the occupation when the U.S. government demanded that the Iraqi president step down from power and undermine the government). Of course, protesters initially refused to end the protest because they are claiming their denied rights from the government, and because none of those rights were met. At this point the troops threatened to storm the square.

The protesters realized that this measure will spark a devastating war, so they decided to cling to peace and wisdom and agreed toend the protest and remove the tents, but asked the troops to give them a few hours to inform other squares of protests in other parts of Iraq, about their position. They said that they had an agreement with those squares not to leave until their demands are met, and that they do not want their position to be misunderstood, and that they do not want to look as if they are letting their brothers down or abandoning the protest, that their position should be understood correctly as only to prevent bloodshed. This was the golden opportunity for the military forces to pounce immediately on the protesters and the massacre occurred.

Details that are documented by photos and videos that we got from the square and through eye witnesses that the army and the forces of SWAT have opened fire with live ammunition against civilians, and images of bodies show that the troops were firing on heads and chests: to kill immediately (as the occupation forces used to do), and some have been run over by vehicles, while wounded were executed in the square. An eyewitness talked about a disabled child of 10 years who was among the protesters with his elderly father, he was turned over and beaten by his wheelchair. Moreover, captured protesters whose hands were tied behind their backs were executed, as piles of bodies show. Among those captured was professor dr. Aamer Abboud Al-Douri, the dean of the college of Economics and Administration in the University of Kirkuk, who is shown in the pictures alive, but captured and tied up, then he was announced dead (pictures  and video attached). 

According to our sources, the troops also used some “eyes” on the protesters, and that those people deceived protesters by telling them that the troops were willing to listen and understand, that they just wanted to search the square, not to commit a massacre. More dangerous than this is that the troops buried some bodies immediately so that the real number of victims is lost. Accordingly, the real number is more than what health directorate announced (Do not all these details remind you of the tactics of the U.S. occupation troops until the end of 2024!!). The desperate cry of the witness from the sqaure, pleading for help on the phone was heart wrenching, when he cried: “Please, Please tell the world: we are being slaughtered”.

We have seen the military forces besieging the square. They were having walks and were smoking, laughing relaxed in front of the protesters. If they believed that there were weapons in the square: how did they have all this luxury? We ask with protestor witness: how was it possible for the U.S. to invade Iraq if it knew that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction?

 Among details, the truth might be lost, but al-Maliki came out now calling for preventing bloodshed and avoiding strife. Did not he declare in front to TV channels that the protest will be finished by force? Didn’t he carry out his threats? How could he now demand preventing bloodshed, while it was he himself who spilled it?  What national unity is he talking about now? Why did not conscience hurt him when al-Jaa’fari (ex. Prime minister) and Solagh (ex. Minister of interior) broke the detainees’ bones, drilled holes in their bodies with electric drillers, raped  them and threw their bodies in the garbage? Or did he forget that all those crimes happened in the seventh floor of the Ministry of the Interior, Taji prison, Abu Ghraib prison, Nasiriyah central prison, the "secret" prisons in the Green Zone, the Tasfirat prison and others?

If you really want to save the Iraqi blood, be ashamed of yourself and just go away, take your billions of dollars, your gangs and leave, leave what is left of Iraq for its people, to rebuild it, to bypass the strife, because it is you and your gangs who created it.

Dear brothers of the honest Iraqi military forces, you are the sons of a great army, an army that wrote historical epics, and was really a fence for the country, don’t let those who were trained on the hands of the Zionists in the occupation military barracks, don’t let them tarnish the great reputation of our army, don’t let them stain your hands with your brothers’ blood, don’t let them make criminal gangs of you. Don’t point your weapons against your people or against the resistance, on the contrary, join them against the enemy, and if you can’t, then throw your arms away, at least to have the honor of not killing your brothers, as many of you have already done, bless them.