Iraqis Boycott Election Fraud
Iraq is being denied free and fair elections, after enduring decades of
Saddam’s brutal dictatorship. The US and British occupation governments have engineered a process for
reproducing the US-appointed Iraqi Interim Government, to prolong the occupation and incite sectarian and
ethnic conflicts.
Millions of Iraqis, under siege in many parts of their homeland, will be disenfranchised, while hundreds of
thousands of second generation Americans and Israelis could vote.
While boycotting this undemocratic exercise, we strongly condemn all forms of violence against Iraqis
participating in it. We, as exiles, are confident that the vast majority of Iraqis, at home and abroad,
shall unite to end the US-led occupation and establish democracy, whatever their stance on participation.
We echo opinions within Iraq stressing the impossibility of holding free and fair elections while under
occupation, and being subjected to war crimes by the US-led forces. However, we support demands for minimal
pre-conditions: (1) setting a strict timetable for speedy withdrawal of all occupation forces, (2) ceasing
all attacks, and confining all occupation forces to barracks until full withdrawal, (3) ending martial law
and releasing all political prisoners, (4) establishing an independent election commission, led by Iraq’s
senior serving and retired judges, and including all Iraq’s political forces. The commission can be assisted
by anti-occupation figures, e.g. Nelson Mandela, and the UN General Assembly."
Signatures:
1. Sami Ramadani: Senior lecture, London Metropolitan University
2. Haifa Zangana: Novelist, UK
3. Professor Kamal Majid, UK
4. Tahrir Numan: Journalist, UK
5. Dr. Imad Khadduri: Nuclear scientist, Toronto, Canada
6. Mundher Adhami: Researcher, Kings College, London University
7. Dr. Nadje Al-Ali: Exeter university, UK
8. Dr. Mousa Al-Hussaini: Writer and journalist, UK
9. Dr. Usama Al-Shabibi: Pharmacist-Pharmacologist, UK
10. Dr. Ali Assam: Computer expert: UK
11. Yasar Mohammed Salman Hasan: computer expert, UK
12. Dr. Mahboub Al-Chalabi, Petroleum expert, UK
13. Dr Subhi Toma: Social studies researcher, Paris
14. Jafar Al-Samarrai: Computer expert
15. Dr. Ali Al-Shahwani: Engineer
16. Zaid Numan, Chartered building Surveyor, UK
17. Hani Lazim, Computer expert: UK
18. Mohammed Aref: Science writer, UK
19. Fenik Adham: Councellor: UK
20. Mahmoud Al-Bayaty: Novelist, Sweden
For further information contact:
**************************************************
Sami Ramadani,
Department of Applied Social Sciences,
London Metropolitan University, City Campus,
Calcutta House,
Old Castle Street,
London, E1 7NT
Tel: 020 7320 1280
Fax: 020 7320 1034
Email: [email protected]
Ghazwan Al-Mukhtar from Baghdad: "The Election Was Shoved Down
Our Throats"
Monday, January 31st, 2005
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/31/1517201
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To get an Iraqi perspective on the election, we go to Baghdad to speak with retired Iraqi engineer Ghazwan
Al-Mukhtar. Mukhtar says, "What do I do with democracy? Does it allow me to walk across the street without
being feared of being kidnapped or being shot at or being mugged or being stolen? Would democracy feed my
children? Would democracy allow me to quench my thirst? The U.S. has not done anything at all to improve the
life of Iraqi people." [includes rush transcript]
To get an Iraqi perspective on the elections we turn now to retired Iraqi engineer Ghazwan Al-Mukhtar. We
have spoken to Ghazwan at key points during the invasion and occupation of Iraq. One the first anniversary
of the invasion, the first siege of Fallujah and the so-called transfer of sovereignty on June 28. Today we
get his thoughts on the elections in Iraq. Just before the program, we reached Ghazwan Al Mukhtar at his
home in Baghdad.
- Ghazwan Al-Mukhtar, retired Iraqi engineer.
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
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AMY GOODMAN: And this is Democracy Now! democracynow.org as we move from Kurdistan back to Baghdad,
to get response from retired Iraqi engineer Ghazwan Al-Mukhtar. Throughout key points of the invasion and
occupation we have checked in with him on the first anniversary of the invasion, on the siege of Fallujah,
the so-called transfer of sovereignty on June 28. Today we get his thoughts on the elections. We reached him
just before the program. This is Ghazwan Al-Mukhtar at his home in Baghdad.
GHAZWAN AL-MUKHTAR: I do not believe that the election is legitimate, the election is held under
the occupation. The occupying power has modified the basic rules in Iraq as to who is an Iraqi and who is
not. The election was shoved down our throat because all the major parties, including Allawi's party,
requested that the election be postponed. That was in November. And before even the independent electoral
commission could decide on the request, that President Bush said he does not want the election to be
postponed and Ambassador Negroponte said, oddly enough, it came from Fallujah. He was in Fallujah, and
declared that the elections will be held on the January 30. It is an Iraqi election, it is not a U.S.
election, it is not Negroponte's election, it is the Iraqi people's election. So, if the Iraqi parties
wanted to postpone the election, they should have been able to do so without the interference of the United
States government.
Anyway, having done the election now, it was forced down our throat, a lot of people have boycotted it.
The Sunnis have boycotted the elections. Some of the Shias boycotted it. Muktadar Al Sadr faction boycotted
the election. Al Khalaf faction boycotted the election. There is a resistance to the occupation in Iraq.
This resistance stems from the fact that our life has been, for the last 22 months, deteriorating day and
night and we have not seen any improvement in our condition for the last 22 months, nor that anything has
been reconstructed. The telephone system is bad, the electricity is worse, the security condition is worse.
A lot of people are saying, why do I vote? What does the government do for me? They did absolutely nothing.
The shocking thing is that the conditions after 22 months of occupation is a lot worse in every single
aspect of life than with Saddam Hussein, after 12 years of sanction.
While I'm talking to you I just heard two bombs exploding not too far from here. I did not vote and I
will not vote to any one of those people who came on the back of the American banks. I do not see any change
because there is no will to reconstruct anything. There is no will to improve the life of the Iraqis. It is
going to take another two years and a lot of will. Mind you, in 1991, with the huge destruction in Iraq, we,
the Iraqi people, despite the sanctions and with no help from anybody, we were able to restore the
electricity, we were able to restore the water, the sewage and in six months we were able to rebuild the
country in less than a year. Now that time has gone. The U.S. had 22 months occupation and they have not
fixed a single thing in Iraq. We are still getting 2,000 to 2,200 calories on the ration system. We were
told that Saddam Hussein was stealing our money both in the palaces and keeping us poor and hungry. But now
after 22 months, we are still getting 2200 calories or sometimes less.
Halliburton -- we have added crisis right now of petrol, Iraq was an exporting country of diesel fuel and
refined oil products. Since the occupation, we have been importing oil from Turkey. No one fixes the
refineries. There is a huge queue of cars waiting to get oil or petrol. And the Congress, the U.S. Congress
said in 2003, May 2003, seven out of 18 governmentals had more than 16 hours of electricity. Now we are
getting two hours of electricity right in Baghdad. I am lucky today, I have electricity from 7:00 to 9:00
and that is going to be all. Until late in the evening, maybe, I don't know when, I'll get the electricity.
So, all those factors will indicate that the people are discontent, the people are resentful of the
presence of the American forces, that the people are dissatisfied with the occupation, because they have not
seen any improvement in their life. Unemployment is very high; it's at about 60%. People are starving. This
is the basis for the resistance. It's not the Mussabu Al Zarqawi and Abu, I don't know who, or the
terrorists coming from the outside of Iraq. It is the indigenous Iraqi resistance. While we were told that
Saddam Hussein was torturing us, we are finding after 22 months that the Americans are torturing us, the
British are torturing us, the Danish are torturing us and now we discover that the Iraqi forces, the ING is
torturing us. So, instead of one having one torturer, now we have four torturers. And you want us to be
happy with the election.
This reminds me of a story when Mary Antoinette, when she was told that the people did not have bread to
eat. She said why don't they eat cake? We don't have anything and they tell us here it is democracy. Take
democracy. What do I do with democracy? Does it allow me to walk across right the street without being
feared of being kidnapped or being shot at or being mugged or being stolen? Would democracy feed my
children? Would democracy allow me to quench my thirst? The U.S. has not done anything at all to improve the
life of Iraqi people. And that is one of the reasons why you are seeing all those attacks.
AMY GOODMAN: Ghazwan Al-Mukhtar, a retired Iraqi engineer speaking from his home in Baghdad.
Iraq’s Right to Resistance and
Self-Determination
By Ghali Hassan 02/25/05
The invasion and Occupation of Iraq is an orchestrated imperial conquest that has nothing to do with
weapons of mass destruction, the 9/11 attacks or the “liberation” of Iraq. These were just pretexts, and
have been proved (several times) to be just fabricated lies. The War against Iraq begun in 1990 and
continues today. The 2003 invasion of Iraq was merely the beginning of the physical occupation of a
defenceless nation. The purposes are clear: The control and exploitation of Iraq natural resources,
including oil, and support Israel’s Zionist policy in the Middle East.
For the last two years the US and its allies in Iraq have followed a policy to terrorise the Iraqi people
and deny them their right to self-determination. Indiscriminate and rampant attacks on Iraqi families and
individuals by British and US forces are continuing. Iraqi men, women and children are arrested and
imprisoned daily. They are subjugated to intimidation, torture, and rape and in many cases Iraqis are
murdered or simply disappeared at the hands of US forces and their mercenaries. Hundreds of thousands Iraqis
are still imprisoned and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are displaced. Thousands of Iraqi professors,
intellectuals and scholars have been murdered.
In addition, Occupation forces continue the deliberate destruction of the Iraqi society and Iraq’s
infrastructure, as well as the plunder of Iraq’s resources. It is now abundantly clear that the US (and
British) forces came to Iraq to stay. They will not leave Iraq voluntarily. They have to be forced to leave.
US forces did not leave Vietnam voluntarily; they were forced to leave by popular national Resistance
movement. Similarly, Israel’s army did not leave Lebanon voluntarily; Israel was forced to leave Lebanon by
a national Resistance movement.
The only way to end the US Occupation of Iraq is popular resistance against it. The Iraqi Resistance knows
that it is on its own, and that it has to depend on its own resources. The Resistance should make no
illusions about the leaders of the “anti-war” movement, and the Left/Liberal elites “opposition” to the War
and Occupation. Their “activism” is an empty slogan; it is merely a way “to salve people’s consciences
without having to think or do anything”. They are imperialism’s tools of propaganda. Without their
“feel-good” life-style activism, Western “democracy” is a form of naked tyranny. They provide sugar-coated
delusion and tranquilliser for the disfranchised masses.
The New York Times, the mother of all intellectual deceptions, described the “anti-war” movement
inaccurately as the ‘second super power’, which was melted like ice cream in the sun, once the terror of
America’s “Shock and Awe” begun. It’s variant, the so-called “human shield” “anti-war” activists
collaborated closely with the US-Britain forces by passing to them vital and secret information during
US-Britain attacks on Baghdad. They were nowhere to be seen or found as soon as the war begun. It was
evidence that people were demonstrating, but they lack principled opposition to war, and to the imperialist
policy of their own nations.
Once the Occupation in place, the majority of the “anti-war” movement and the Left/Liberal elites have
jumped on the “No to Bush” bandwagon, threw in their support for John Kerry. And when they proved to be
unsuccessful because their opposition was meaningless and fake, they moved on to endorse the US-crafted
illegitimate Iraqi elections. Their new hero is Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, who allegedly “forced the US to
the elections”. This is utterly untrue. The reality is that Al-Sistani backed down from his position to
early elections and the handover plan, and accepted US proposition for late elections (to coincide with Bush
inauguration) on US terms and agenda. Further, there is evidence that Al-Sistani supported the US attack on
and the destruction of the vibrant city of Fallujah. His illness and travel to London (accompanied by Ahmed
Chelabi) were timed to coincide with the slaughter of thousands of Iraqis. It is the policy of imperialism
to manipulate the masses by manipulating their religious leaders.
Furthermore, the destruction of Fallujah was evidence of the “anti-war” movement’s weak strategy and
opposition against an illegal war of aggression. The movement approaches to stop the war and end the
Occupation are delusional. It is difficult to dispute this, which appears to be critical today. The new
approach taken by the leaders of the “anti-war” movement and the Left/Liberal elites is to have a “good”
Occupation to prevent “civil war”. This kind of approach adopted and promoted in the mainstream media
because it is flawed to the core, and designed to serve US interests and legitimise a long and violent
Occupation.
The other promoters of “good” Occupation are the Christian missionaries and NGOs, the oldest and most
effective tools of imperialism. They are fanning throughout not only Iraq, but also the Developing World
whenever there is war or crisis, taking over the responsibilities of once government. Almost all
missionaries and NGOs are Western. They are the pacifiers of people’s resistance. They form the “buffer”
between the people and foreign occupations. The Indian novelist Arundhati Roy described NGOs accurately as “
the arbitrators, the interpreters, [and] facilitators”. NGOs, she writes, “have funds to employ local people
who could be activists in resistance movements, but instead feel they are doing some immediate, creative
good while earning a living”.
The Japanese aid worker, Takato Nahoko, who was taken hostage in Fallujah, said in an interview recently,
‘Creating jobs, especially for young men, and schools to keep children occupied will help keep them away
from militia recruitment and the violent anti-American movement’ [Cited in Matsumoto Chie, ZNet, October 06,
2004]. The philosophy behind the West “humanitarian” aid business is dependency and passivity, not “humanitarian”.
Nevertheless, it is important to distinguish the ‘bad’ from the ‘good’ and remember that some of the private
NGOs are doing useful work with the local communities in times of war and occupation.
Despite the unpopularity of the US Occupation, and the violence and the havoc wrought upon the Iraqi
society, opposition to it in the West, particularly in the US remains mute and passive. The continuing US
atrocities in Iraq are greeted with yawns in the West. As Bertrand Russell once wrote, “It is the nature of
imperialism that citizens of the imperial power are always among the last to know and care about
circumstances in the colonies”.
Since the Occupation and deliberate destruction of the Iraqi society began, the West “anti-war” movement
remains silent pretending it is not supporting “violent” Resistance led by “fundamentalists”. Unfortunately,
it is the occupation forces and the Bush right-wing administration that are spreading this line. The
violence is brought by the Occupation, not by the people fighting to end it. Everywhere, violent resistance
arises from a violent foreign military occupation. Those who obliged to kill to defend their country and
people are called “terrorists”; those who kill en masse to enforce their tyranny of domination are the noble
(wo)men of Western “civilisation”. As the American civil rights advocate, Martin Luther King said, “I could
never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed … without having first spoken clearly to
the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today - my own government”.
It should be emphasized that there are criminal elements working with the Occupation against the principle
aim of the Iraqi Resistance. This distortion of the image of the Iraqi Resistance has its purposes and
designed to discredit the name of the Resistance. Reports from Iraq have contradicted this distorted image
of a legitimate popular Resistance movement fighting against illegal and tyrannical Occupation [Molly
Bingham, Boston Globe, 15 December 2004]. “It was a mistake to discount the Iraqi [R]esistance”, a US
soldier, Lt. Col. Kim Keslung told the Wall Street Journal October, 2003. “If someone invaded Texas, we'd do
the same thing”, he added.
The aim of the Resistance is the unconditional withdraw of all foreign forces from Iraq and the return of
Iraq sovereignty. All Iraqi citizens, men, women and children, not “foreigners” are against the Occupation
of their land. There is no evidence that there are foreigners among the Resistance. The foreigners are the
US, Italians, Poles, English, and Australian soldiers. If there were foreigners fighting with the Resistance,
they would be welcomed fighting along their Iraqi brethrens. The Australian Government of John Howard is
sending (against the wishes of the overwhelming majority of the Australian people) 450 soldiers to Iraq
allegedly “to help” their US, Japanese, and English “brethrens”. Why can’t the Iraqis call on their Muslim
and Arab brethrens for help? Iraqis have legitimate right to defend themselves and their country against
foreign invaders.
According to UN Charter and numerous UN resolutions, international law guarantees people’s right to resist
an illegal occupation by “all necessary means at their disposal” to end the occupation of their nation.
Resistant groups “are entitled to seek and receive support”. Armed resistant have been used against the
English in the US, against the Nazis in France, Yugoslavia and Norway. The historic judgement by the Italian
judge Clementina Forleo, Judge for the Preliminary Hearing in Milan on 24 January 2005 adds another
legitimacy to the Iraqi struggle against US Occupation. Judge Forleo ruled that the accused (five North
Africans) “cannot be classified as terrorists”, but resistance fighters. She said, ”that resistance [to] US
occupation forces in Iraq by sending fighters does not amount to terror”. The judgement was supported by an
overwhelming majority of the Italian Legal Community.
The US Occupation of Iraq has failed. Basic improvements to the lives of ordinary Iraqis, which started to
appear before the war, have now disappeared. More Iraqis now than ever face increasing hardship and misery.
The health system is deteriorated and Iraq’s infrastructure is collapsing. Insecurity and unemployment are
rising to dangerous levels. Iraq’s future today is being determined not by the Iraqi people, but by the
corrupt and incompetent US administration. The US-installed puppet government of expatriates and quislings
are fighting among themselves for the position of who will serve the Occupation better and provide the US
with new façade to role the Middle East.
The new US strategy coupled with illegitimate elections is to change the face of the Occupation and
internationalise it. With this, the Bush Administration hopes it has a platform to manoeuvre and pursue new
war. The US is training more Kurd militias and requesting more troops from the dwindling “coalition of the
willing”. This cosmetic change is a farce PR. The Occupation remains a violent US-British military
Occupation against the wishes of the Iraqi people. Occupation is not “freedom” and “liberty”; occupation is
a tyranny with all the characteristics of oppression and fear.
In the mean time, the heroic Iraqi Resistance stands in stark contrast to the cowardly self-styled and
US-installed Arab rulers and the bankruptcy of Arab intellectuals. The Iraqi people are unlikely to remain
under US Occupation and artificially divided.
With or without the “solidarity” of those who demonstrated against the war in Western capitals, the Iraqi
popular Resistance movement will continue against the US-led Occupation until the US is forced to leave Iraq.
Only a US withdrawal will bring the possibility of real democracy and freedom to Iraq.
Self-determination independent of foreign power is the Iraqi people right to self-rule. Once this is
achieved, the Iraqi people will have the chance to build their society and their country free from foreign
domination. Lets hope that Iraqi Resistance will thwart US imperialism in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Ghali Hassan lives in Perth Western Australia. He can be reached at e-mail:
[email protected]
بيان المؤتمر التأسيسي العراقي الوطني حول الهجمات الدموية الارهابية
التي استهدفت المدنيين الابرياء في مناطق بغداد المختلفة
September 15, 2005
.
1- These attacks, and the statements that followed them by those who claim to have perpetrated them, are
not far from other efforts to create sectarian strife in Iraq that have so far failed, despite all
attempts, due to the immune collective Iraqi spirit and its inner cohesion, as was manifested in the
aftermath of the recent tragedy at Al-A'imma bridge. History will prove to all who attempt to tread this
venue that the Iraqis are more resilient in their rejection of this sectarian path.
2- The recent 'security plan' that was implemented by the 'Iraqi government' in Baghdad has been proven to
be a total failure. It is time that the government admits this failure as well as the failure of the
Interior and Defence ministers in their responsibilities in protecting the lives of the citizens, and the
need to relieve them of their transient positions.
3- The insistence of the American occupation forces, and the successive 'Iraqi governments' that are under
their control, on adopting a scorched earth policy and the killing and displacing of innocent civilians
from their homes and cities as has repeatedly occurred in Najaf, Sadr city, Fallujah, Samarra, Baqouba,
Qaim, Hit, Haditha and other Iraqi cities, the last of which was Tala'afar, and their announced threat to
yet wage more fruitless similar bloody assaults on the same and other cities will only lead to further
bloodshed, instability, destruction and the tearing apart of Iraq. It is high time for the occupation
forces to come to their senses and face these facts and commence on a scheduled withdrawal from Iraq as
soon as possible, and leave Iraq to its people who are capable of administering it and to tend to the
wounds that have been inflicted by the occupation.
Long will live the memories of our martyrs.
Shame on those who support or are working on tearing Iraq apart.
September 15, 2005
Democracy
and Human Rights Records in Iraq
The US State Department's worldwide reports
on human rights records, 196, which were issued in 2004, did not bring democracy and human rights in
Iraq.
As human rights activists in Iraq, we are
sending you this report to be added to those of the US State Department', so that the total becomes 197
reports.
As long as the occupation forces and the
pro-occupation government keep oppressing freedom of expression, press and religious beliefs and
congregations, let alone the arbitrary illegal detentions against those who are
just practicing their rights, as well as those working on defending human rights, human rights will always
be as tragic and disastrous as it is at the moment.
Today, under the US democracy, there are
more than 196,000 detainees behind the democracy bars, only few of them were released, more than two
million immigrants in forced exile, more than three million civilians who fled their homes leaving to
other parts of the world, many of which died in the course of coercive exile, the ongoing brutalities
practiced by the occupation forces and their collaborators of government forces and the locally ill-reputed
pro-government militias, who launch military offensives with all sorts of weapons, conventional or
unconventional, covered by military aircrafts.
We have been watching the situation of the
Iraqi towns which came under such offensives and have come up with the following conclusion:
Though a good political atmosphere is
rumoured to exist in Iraq which allegedly serves almost all layers of the Iraqi people, genocides and
ethnic and sectarian cleansing are still going on. The occupation forces and their collaborators must be
legally held accountable for all crimes committed in Iraq.
Despite the humanitarian voices which have
been calling for putting an end to the bloodbaths, destructions, and violations of international laws and
conventions, these crimes still exist.
The crimes in question involve illegal
arbitrary detentions, killing, assassination, injuring innocent people, routine forcible exile of thousands
of civilians after besieging their towns and depriving them of water, food, electricity and access to
medical care, particularly after destroying all hospitals and health centers, as well as the deliberate
destruction of houses and mosques.
Reports quoting eyewitnesses have assured
the fact that military forces and militias have deliberately looted properties, raped women, destroyed and
created havoc in towns and villages.
The occupation forces should be held
accountable for such crimes, for they are the ones who have taken their responsibilities and commitments to
international conventions for granted, on top of which their violation of the UN Security Council
resolution no. 1546 issued on June 2004 which stipulates the nature of the relationship and responsibility
of the occupation forces towards Iraq and the Iraqi people.
Abdul Wahahb Al Obeidi
Statement of the Council of Nineveh Province Notables, Sheikhs and Uleima.
In the Name of God the Compassionate and
Merciful
A memorandum from Nineveh Province
Dignitaries, Sheikhs and Uleima to:
General Secretary of the United Nations
General Secretary of the League of Arab
Nations
General Secretary of the Organisation of
Islamic States
Kings and Presidents of the Arab and
Islamic States
All Humanitarian and Human Rights
Organisations
In the light of the difficult
circumstance that our country and people in general and the Province of Nineveh in particular are going
through, a number of dignitaries and tribal chiefs from the Nineveh Province have met to discuss the tragic
condition of the people of the Province under the shadow of the deficiency and absence of legislative and
executive authorities and their security and military authorities which have changed to become tools for
the oppression of the people of the Province and to add further to their misery.
After discussions, it was decided to
raise the following memorandum in the hope it may find some response to this call to protect this Arabic
Islamic city and to assist our people in the Province of Nineveh.
We demand an International Committee of
Enquiry in addition to an Iraqi committee formed by representatives of Uleima, Sheikhs and Notables drawn
from central and southern Iraq to investigate the crimes committed by the American occupation forces
assisted by members of the Interior Special Forces and National Guard. We especially point to the sectarian
crimes and the rape of Iraqi women which count as grave precedent in Iraq. The Iraqi Government is partner
to all of these crimes in the absence of the media and in particular the killing and kidnapping of
journalists by mercenaries of the occupation after terrorising and excluding satellite stations and Arabic
and International media preventing the coverage of what is going on to enable the slaughter of Iraqi people
without witnesses.
As we lay before the international public
opinion and international human rights organisations the truth of what is happening in Tel Afar of the
extreme use of force and the use of internationally forbidden weapons of poison gases, cluster, microwave
and napalm bombs, we demand autopsies be carried out on the corpses of our sons who fell in the barbaric
aggression by international medical bodies to verify the inhuman practices carried out by the American
forces of occupation and to expose the stooge militias that participated in the massacre of Tel Afar.
We warn as responsible people of the
dangers of the ongoing ethnic cleansing in Tel Afar and the left bank of the city of Mosul and surrounding
villages carried out by Beshmarga militias of the Kurdish parties and Badir Brigade “which are acting as
regular forces of the National Guard” aided by the silence of the government where in particular the homes
of the Sunna in the city of Tel Afar are destroyed after the men are arrested and women and children are
forcibly evicted under threat of death and rape.
We demand an end to the organised
campaign of arrest against the Sunna. About fifty to a hundred sons, sheikhs and teachers of the Province
are arrested only to be released days later after the payment of bribes which exposes how low the
perpetrators are and their aim of breaking the morale of the people of the Province.
We demand the trial of the ministers of
defence and interior for what they have caused to our people in Tel Afar and Mosul as a result of crimes
rejected by human conscience. We also hold the government responsible for the exterminations and bloody
butchery which took place in the city of Tel Afar and the extreme cruelty meted out to Sunna civilians both
Arab and Turcoman.
We also demand the removal of the
Governor of Nineveh Duraid Kashmoola who was too weak to do anything to assist the people of the Province
and for keeping silent about all the assassinations and arrests carried out the Kurdish gangs and the
Forces of Badir against the sons and notables of the Province. We also site his silence and failure to put
a stop to Kurdish expansion which has encompassed all the villages of the Province. Kurdish gangs have
abrogated the right to the control of all towns and villages surrounding Mosul where they treat all non
Arabs even though they are not Kurdish such as Yezidis, Assyrians and Shabak, as Kurds by force. They also
appointed party functionaries over such villages, took down the Iraqi flags and raised Kurdish flags
instead.
Kurdish militias have in fact occupied
the left bank of the city of Mosul itself and took down the Iraqi flags then raised Kurdish flags instead.
The Governor has not stirred because the Province is lead by the Kurdish deputy Governor Khisro Kolani. He
is the very person responsible for leading all of the extermination and assassination operations against
the Uleima, the sons of the Province, its sheikhs and teachers. All of the people of Mosul know that he is
the person responsible for the assassination of the previous Governor Dr. Osama Yousif Kashmoola because he
made a stand against the Kurdish tide.
While we warn of the gravity of the
security situation in the Province in general and Tel Afar in particular we lay the responsibility for the
latest sectarian escalation upon the party militias working as regular forces such as the National Guard as
represented by the wolf and thunder brigades. In addition to arbitrary arrests, inhuman treatment,
violation of residents’ rights and the theft of their belongings they shout upon entering towns in the
Province “The army of AlHusain is here to break the noses of the Sunnis”. This is a simple indicator of the
sectarianism and hatred of such groups which was not familiar to either Sunni or Shia Iraqis and is a
further clear indicator of the treachery of the parties that entered from beyond the borders of the Iraqi
people.
We demand the withdrawal of all militias
and all armed manifestations from the city of Mosul where these militias have established check points and
distributed weapons to young militia men in an effort to terrorise the residents of Mosul. They have cut
off roads arbitrarily while the Governor does nothing; in fact he is the last to know. They have hoisted
Kurdish flags over buildings in order to establish a de facto state as if we live in a country that is not
Iraq. Every one knows that Mosul (despite our belief that all Iraqi cities are for all Iraqis) is an Arab
city from old while the Kurdish residents in the left bank are those who migrated in last few years under
pressure of difficult circumstances encountered in their areas. The people of Mosul opened their arms to
their brothers and embraced them not to turn their city Kurdish because they believed in the unity of this
country. This is in sharp contrast with the banning of Iraqi Arabs from owning, building or investing in
the northern areas. In addition there is a campaign of harassment to non Kurdish travellers to the north of
Iraq.
We protest at the news blackout and total
silence practiced by international organisations and human rights organisations towards what is taking
place in Tel Afar and Mosul.
We protest at the news blackout and total
silence practiced by Arab satellite stations towards what happened and is happening in Tel Afar and Mosul.
We protest the Arab, Islamic and
International silence towards the use of weapons of mass destruction against our people in Tel Afar and
demand an International Committee of Enquiry similar to the one investigating the death of Al-Hariri or is
the blood of the people of Iraq in Tel Afar does not warrant investigating?
With God’s Peace and Blessings
The Council of Nineveh Province Notables,
Sheikhs and Uleima.
Mosul 22/12/2005
Statement by an authorized spokesman of the Patriotic, National, and Islamic Front concerning the crimes
committed by the treacherous pro-Iranian gangs in Iraq and its environs.
Albasrah.net
Since the beginning of the
current month of February criminal pro-Iranian militias under the puppet “Interior Ministry,” backed by the
US occupation forces and with the participation of battalions of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th
Brigades of the heathen army that the US occupation forces have formed, trained, and equipped . . these
armed puppet gangs have carried out widespread raids in numerous neighborhoods of Baghdad and its environs,
arresting and killing hundreds of our citizens in a desperate attempt to terrorize our people and to curb
the escalating heroic operations of the Iraqi patriotic Resistance…
These criminal gangs kicked
off their latest campaign by surrounding and searching the neighborhoods of al-‘Amiriyah, al-Ghazaliyah, al-Khadra’.
They arrested hundreds of residents of these neighborhoods.
On February 2nd
they surrounded the al-Jihad neighborhood in Baghdad and arrested more than 300 local residents after
breaking down their doors, ransacking their houses, terrifying women and children, and smashing their
household furniture.
On February 4th,
the pro-Iranian gangs backed up by tanks and aircraft of the American occupation troops, raided many
districts in the southern Baghdad areas of ad-Durah and as-Sayyidiyah. They smashed doors and furniture in
houses and mosques, tore up dozens of copies of the Holy Qur’an, mocked the Arab Prophet Muhammad ibn
‘Abdallah, may peace and blessings be upon him, and arrested 35 people. At the same time another force was
raiding the al-‘Amil neighborhood and arresting 25 local men.
Since the first of this month,
the districts of Salman Bak and Abu Ghurayb have been subject to savage, continuous nighttime raids.
Sixty-five people have been arrested in Salman Bak.
On February 8th,
pro-Iranian gangs carried out widespread raids in many areas of the Baghdad district of al-A‘zamiyah,
arresting dozens of local citizens. Every morning dozens of bodies are being found tossed in the streets
and lanes of Baghdad, ar-Rustamiyah, Badrah, and Jassan – bodies bearing signs of barbaric, savage torture.
These bodies belong to the citizens who are being arrested in the course of this outrageous campaign of
hate.
The Patriotic, National, and
Islamic Front holds the US occupation forces fully responsible for these savage crimes being perpetrated by
their stooges in the pro-Iranian militias operated by the “Interior Ministry” under the direction and
planning of the criminals ‘Adil ‘Abd al-Mahdi al-Muntafiki, Bayan Jabr Sulagh and ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Hakim and
under the direct orders of one “Sa‘idi,” the top official in the Iranian intelligence network in Iraq, whose
lair is the Iranian embassy in Baghdad.
The Patriotic, National, and
Islamic Front resolutely affirms that these barbarous crimes against our patient, persevering, defiant
people will not go unpunished, and that the heroes of the Resistance will continue to rain the severest
blows on the occupation forces and their little stooges until the occupation is driven out, the stooges are
crushed, and our dear homeland is free.
Our people will win! The traitors will not
escape punishment!
Glory to the heroic men of the Resistance!
Defeat and shame to the occupiers and their
lackey rubbish!
Baghdad, 14 February 2006.
The Patriotic, National, and Islamic Front.
Press Release
For immediate release
June 5th 2008
Oil Minister's transfer
of union activists a 'human rights crime'
Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions
President Hassan Jumaa Awad called for support in response to the transfer
of eight union activists by the Iraqi Oil Minister.
The eight executive committee members
have been told they must leave their homes and community networks in Basra
and move to Al-Dora, one of the most violence ridden with neighbourhoods of
Baghdad. The leadership of the IFOU has branded the move a 'human rights
crime' Senior managers from the Southern Oil Company have also been
transferred.
Statement From Hassan Jumaa Awad:
The Iraqi Oil Minister, Hussein Al-Shahirstani, has ordered the transfer of
eight Oil Union activists from their posts at the oil refineries in
the south. This act reflects the minister's anti-union policy, and his lack
of respect for unions and union activists in the oil sector. Those
activists, through their hard work, are well known for fighting corruption
and the corrupt cligues in the Ministry and the oil sector.
They have been transferred to Baghdad Al-Dora neighborhood (known for
worsening security situation, and high level of sectarian killings). In the
context of Iraqi security conditions, such a transfer is rightfully regarded
as human rights crime.
We call upon all people of good will in the world to take a stand to
denounce these despicable and criminal acts by the Iraqi Oil Ministry
against trade unions and their activists. The trade unions have been
reestablished and revitalized through the hard work of union activists
without any protection from the state, which keeps bragging about democracy.
[The Maliki government, taking its lead from the U.S.
Occupation Authority, continues to enforce the 1987 Saddam Hussein labor
code that prohibits unions and bargaining for workers in the oil sector and
all other public enterprises, which constitute 80% of all formal Iraqi
jobs.]
This act is a clear evidence that the Iraqi state seeks to liquidate trade
unions in this important Iraqi economic sector, oil. It is
important to note that the south is the main source of oil in Iraq. The oil
sector there employs more than 39,000 workers. The Iraqi state has no
intention of allowing an Oil Trade Union in that sector because it
represents a threat to its authority.
We call upon you from all parts of the world to stand with us, for the sake
of labor and workers interests.
Respectfully,
Hassan Juma Awad, President
Iraq Federation of Oil Unions
INTERNATIONAL CALL TO PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF THE
IRAQI DETAINEES AND PRISONERS OF WAR IN IRAQ
London- A group of 120 politicians, academicians and Journalists from
several countries issued an urgent appeal to protect the rights of the
Iraqi detainees and prisoners of war in the American jails in Iraq . The
Group also announced the formation of International Solidarity Committee
with them and demanded that their treatment conforms with the Geneva
Protocol vis-à-vis the detainees and prisoners of war.
The signatories on the Appeal stated: “While we demand the release of
the Iraqi detainees and prisoners of war, we insist that the US
occupation force in Iraq apply the articles of the Geneva Protocol
respecting the prisoners of war, and to cease and desist from all forms
of torture against the detainees, and to allow international judicial
and constitutional committees and the International Red Cross
Organisation to visit all detaining camps in Iraq and examine the state
of their occupants.”
The Appeal stated that the American occupation force in Iraq detains
more than one hundred and fifty thousand detainee and prisoners of war
scattered over more than 28 detaining camps, and that several thousands
of them have been there more than five years under appalling conditions
that contravene the articles of the Geneva Protocol respecting the
prisoners of war.
The Appeal also stated that “the majority of the detainees are elderly
and suffering from health problems that may threaten their lives. There
are also thousands of teenagers, females and kids who were detained as
hostages in lieu of their spouses or their fathers.”
The Appeal affirms that all detainees and prisoners of war are
constantly subjected to all kinds of extreme torture, degradation, and
deprivation of self esteem and human dignity. All detainees are
forbidden from communicating with the outside world, and most of them
from visitations by their families or relatives.
Among the signatories are eighty dignitaries; Members of European
Parliaments, Party Leaders, Political activists from various parts of
the world, and thirty nine politicians, experts, academicians and
journalists from Iraq and several Arab countries.
The followings are the text of the Appeal and the list of the
signatories:
The International Committee for Solidarity with Prisoners and Detainees
in American Jails in Iraq
(Nida', the Call)
The roaring of millions of the earth's people growled on the month of
February 2003 in the streets of major cities in rejection of the choice
of war on Iraq . Those millions have been aware that peace cannot be
achieved through destruction, war, and the clash of civilizations.
Events have proven this position to be right. The United States and the
foreign armies supporting it have occupied Iraq and promised its people
democracy, freedom, and prosperity. But the Iraqi people, five years
into the occupation, still cannot find a place in its homeland that
would be safe from American soldiers, the mercenaries of Blackwater, or
from terrorists and militias who remain a product of the occupation - be
they in agreement with it or not.
Moreover, Iraqis still see no hope in the future if conditions remain as
they have been under the occupation. Today more than three million
Iraqis have turned to refugees in the diaspora for fear of murder and
arrest. Those who remain continue to suffer the pains of the occupation.
Some of them have been incarcerated in the ugliest jails on earth.
At the present time, the forces of American occupation are holding more
than one hundred and fifty thousand Iraqi prisoners and detainees
dispersed over 28 detention camps. Thousands of those have been held
for more than five years in harsh conditions violating the Geneva
Conventions pertaining to the handling prisoners of war (POW's), many of
them older folks suffering from health problems or difficulties which
threaten their lives. Thousands of other prisoners and detainees are
young men, women, and children who have been taken hostage instead of
their husbands and fathers. All of the prisoners and detainees are
continuously subjected to the meanest possible forms of torture, insults,
and debasement of human dignity. All of them are deprived of any means
of communication with the outside world, and most are forbidden from
meeting with their families and parents.
Because we do not hold the American people responsible for the wars,
occupation, and human rights violations transpiring from the policy of
the current US administration,
Because we deem ourselves responsible towards humanity first, and
towards the Iraqi people second, we declare, before its too late, our
opposition to the practices of the occupier running outlaw to the
Conventions on Human Rights. This position of ours is a humanitarian
one that is supportive of civilization, against all who commit wrongs
against it, regardless of their cultural, ethnic, or geographical
affiliation.
This position of ours is not only a defense of the freedom and human
rights of Iraqis, but a defense of humanity, of civilized values, and
the system of justice and laws which should cover everyone, including
Iraqis.
We, in declaring and affirming our solidarity with those defending their
legitimate rights in their homelands, and with Iraqi prisoners and
detainees, condemn and decry the continuation of their detention, and
call on all to initiate all possible activities and events to demand
their release.
We believe that justice is intertwined with freedom. Grass does not
grow on the shields of American tanks of occupation, as the last five
years have shown. But it does grow in the hearts of those who believe
in man, his rights, and his dignity.
We, in demanding the release of Iraqi prisoners and detainees, reaffirm
the importance of holding American forces of occupation in Iraq to the
letter of the Geneva Conventions pertaining to the treatment of
prisoners, to stopping all forms of torture against detainees, and to
allowing international legal and human rights organizations, and the Red
Cross, to visit all American detention camps in Iraq to stay abreast of
the situation of prisoners and detainees there.
The International Committee for Solidarity with Prisoners and Detainees
in American Jails in Iraq
To the kind attention of the secretary general of the
United Nations: Mr. Ban Ki Moon
Subject: Condemnation and request of protection
What
happened in the Kerkuk city on 28 July 2008 is not a solitary event. It is a
part of systematic plan by the Kurdish politicians to benefit from the
unstable situation in Iraq to suppress the Turkmen and absorb Kerkuk
province. The Turkmen are a peaceful community believes in the unity of
Iraq.
The
Iraqi Turkmen are exposed to the aggressive assimilation policies and they
suffered from different massacres in 1924, 1946 and 1959. During the Ba’ath
regime, the Turkmen were exposed to deportation and their lands confiscated,
teaching in Turkmen language was prohibited and they were prevented to
practice their culture. The Turkmen were asked to change their nationality
to avoid discrimination. After occupation, the Turkmen of Iraq continued to
be marginalized from administration and excluded from the political life.
The Turkmen regions are terrorized the inhabitants were intimidated.
Today,
the Kurdish militant parties which dominate the Iraqi administration
practice all sorts of the policies to violate the simplest Human rights of
the Iraqi Turkmen; the violation of the provincial laws by all the Kurdish
authorities, which postpones the election in Kerkuk with power sharing, is
the most recent abuse of the Turkmen rights.
At 28
July 2008, the Kurdish parties ordered the Kurdified administration, the
staffs and shop owners from all the communities and the Kurdish peoples in
Kerkuk to close their business buildings and leave their offices to
participate in a protest against the Provincial Election Law. They also
brought thousands of the Kurds from Erbil. The armed protestors worked to
create chaotic circumstances.
When
the protesters reached to the building of the Kerkuk governorate an
explosion occurred leaving behind numbers of the injured and dead peoples.
Thereafter, groups of the protestors started to attack the buildings of the
Turkmen organizations. They set fire in the building of the Iraqi Turkmen
front and injured the guards. Other groups attacked the buildings of
Turkemeneli party, Turkmen council, Turkmeneli television and several
Turkmen business buildings and houses. All these happened under the vision
of the Kerkuk military and policemen, whom they stand on the sidelines or
participated the protestors.
We, the
members of the Turkmen Brotherhood Club, which is considered one of the
largest Turkmen civil society organizations, severely condemn these
terrorist and provocative activities against Turkmen. We believe that the
fundamentalist Kurdish leader parties should be hold responsible of the
events. We urge the international community, particularly, the secretary
general of the United Nations, members of the Security Council, the European
Union to intervene to establish a mechanism to protect the Iraqi Turkmen,
particularly in Kerkuk. The Turkmen had already lost the confidence in the
Iraqi Government which until now do not announced condemnation of the
attacks on the Turkmen in Kerkuk. It is the time for the international
community to achieve its moral task and protect the Iraqi Turkmen against
the Kurdish attacks.
Dr. Mohammed Omar Kazanchi
Turkmen Brotherhood Club
Declaration on the proposal of a Government of
National Salvation in Iraq
(August 2010)
The facts and realities in Iraq confirm the collapse of the political
process in all its dimensions, its constituting forces, and the systems of
its tools. In the official Iraq, there is no longer political action or a
political class supported by the people. In a country civilised, central and
vital such as Iraq, there is no longer an adequate legal system or
constitutional and executive institutions controlling the pace of political
and institutional action.
International institutions, the official Arab regimes and Arab leaders must
reexamine the scale of social disasters and humanitarian suffering resulting
from the invasion of Iraq, which amounts legally and in humanitarian terms
to human, cultural, social and moral genocide, which bulldozed the full
history of a homeland, a people and a state. Those are the pillars the
current entity is missing. We do not want our proposal of forming a
Government of National Salvation be a tool of pressure by the UN or Arab or
regional forces in the formation of a government of the corrupted, sectarian
based and failed political process. The political process and its political
class is corrupt and brought destruction and graft, chaos and murder,
torture and repression to Iraq and destroyed the potential of Iraq and its
people. They are political tools of foreign and regional agendas that do not
respect the will of the Iraqi people and their aspirations for a life of
freedom and dignity affirming Iraq's right to self-determination by the
people. International legal institutions and the official Arab order should
meet their legal, moral and humanitarian obligations towards Iraq and its
people and endorse the proposal of a Government of National Salvation, under
the auspices of international and Arab supervision, composed of Iraqis known
for their skills and patriotism.
Saqr Centre.
تجديد مطلب حكومة الإنقاذ الوطنيتؤكد
الحقائق والوقائع في العراق انهيار العملية السياسية بإضلاعها ومرتكزاتها
ومنظوماتها ولم يعد في العراق عمل سياسي او طبقة سياسية يؤيدها الشعب ويلتف
حولها ولا منظومة قانونية او دستورية ومؤسسات تنفيذية تضبط إيقاع العمل السياسي
والمؤسساتي الذي يليق ببلد حيوي ومحوري وحضاري مثل العراق,
ولابد ان تنظر الشرعية الدولية والنظام الرسمي العربي والزعماء
العرب الى حجم الكوارث الاجتماعية والإنسانية التي خلفها غزو العراق,
وتوصف قانونيا وإنسانيا بأنها إبادة بشرية وثقافية ومجتمعية
وقيمية,
وتجريف كامل لتاريخ وطن وشعب ودولة
,
وتلك مرتكزات كيان العراق المفقود,
ولا نرغب بان يكون المطلب وسيلة ضغط أممية او عربية او إقليمية
لتشكيل حكومة المحاصصة الطائفية من الطبقة السياسية الفاسدة والتي ساقت العراق
للدمار والفساد والفوضى والقتل والتعذيب وحرق القدرة الكامنة للعراق وشعبه,كونهم
أدوات سياسية لأجندات أجنبية وإقليمية لا تحقق إرادة الشعب العراقي وتطلعاته
لحياة حرة كريمة,
ونؤكد حق العراق في تقرير مصيره من قبل شعبه,
ولابد للشرعية الدولية والنظام الرسمي العربي تحمل مسؤولياته
القانونية والأخلاقية والإنسانية تجاه العراق وشعبه وتفعيل مقترح حكومة الإنقاذ
الوطني برعاية دولية عربية من العراقيين المشهود لهم بالوطنية والكفاءة
