2 years

[Moses]

Iraq attacks claim at least 31 lives 

Agencies Arab News

April 10, 2005

At least 31 people were killed and scores wounded in attacks against Iraqi security forces and civilians on Saturday, the second anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.

In the most deadly attack, a roadside bomb killed 15 Iraqi soldiers and wounded others on the main highway through Latifiyah, 40 kilometres south of Baghdad, a defence ministry official said.

The bomb exploded at 7:30am (0330 GMT) as a convoy of Iraqi troops passed through the town, the official said. No other details were immediately available.

On the same road just outside Latifiyah, five civilians were gunned down by attackers, said a doctor at a nearby hospital.

The area around Latifiyah, populated by a mix of Sunnis and Shiites, is called the "Triangle of Death" for its high rate of murders and kidnappings.

Also south of Baghdad, four drivers were killed and four wounded in an ambush on a 14-truck trade ministry convoy travelling between Kut and the capital, an interior ministry source said. Truck drivers have been killed with increasing frequency in recent months as insurgents hit economic targets and the road from Kut, 175 kilometres southeast of the capital, has become a regular target for insurgents.

In Baghdad, a deputy to anti-American cleric Moqtada Sadr was killed in the southern Dura district as he drove to an anti-US protest in the capital, a Sadr official said. Assailants in another car opened fire on Sayed Fadel Shoki, deputy director of Sadr's office in the Shiite shrine city of Karbala, killing him and wounding another Sadr deputy from the nearby city of Hor, the Sadr official said.

Dura has been riven by sectarian strife. A US army officer in the district has described a low-level war in Dura between Sadr's Mehdi Army militia and Sunni insurgents.

In the northern city of Mosul, a suicide car bomber in an Opel killed a police officer and a civilian and wounding 14 other people, including 11 policemen, medical sources and police told AFP. The bomber targeted a police car and several policemen in the street directing traffic, the medical sources said.

An ex-police officer, Colonel Abdul Aziz Farman Shahine, who resigned from the force last September, was shot dead by unknown gunmen outside his home in the northwestern section of the city, police said.

Mosul turned into an urban war zone in November when rebels executed Iraqi security officers and overran police stations, causing the police force to virtually collapse.

A mortar also struck the Salam Hospital in southern Mosul, wounding two Iraqi soldiers, said Dr Moutaz Jabar at the hospital.

Iraqi soldiers had set up a post in the hospital last month in order to fight insurgents.

In other violence, an Iraqi soldier and a civilian were killed in a roadside bombing in Mashaada, 30 kilometres north of Baghdad, said army Captain Assad Saddad.

Iraqi army and police killed one insurgent and arrested three suspected insurgents in a morning clash in Balad, 75 kilometres north of Baghdad, police said. The corpses of an Iraqi contractor and a truck driver were found in Dujail, north of the capital. Rebels in the Sunni Muslim heartland north of Baghdad have killed dozens of people suspected of working with the Americans and the new Iraqi government.

Meanwhile in the southern port of Basra, two civilians were wounded in another roadside bomb targeting an Iraq police convoy, police said.

Separately, eight Iraqis were wounded when a bomb exploded in the central market of Mussaeib, 50 kilometres south of Baghdad, medics said.

 <br>

[Moses]

Protesters Call for U.S. Pullout in Iraq

Thousands of Protesters Mark Second Anniversary of Fall of Baghdad With Calls for U.S. Pullout

By TRACI CARL

The Associated Press

Apr. 10, 2005 - Tens of thousands of supporters of a militant Shiite cleric filled central Baghdad's streets Saturday and demanded that American soldiers go home, marking the second anniversary of Baghdad's fall with shouts of "No, no to Satan!"

To the west of the capital, 5,000 protesters issue similar demands in the Sunni Triangle city of Ramadi, reflecting a growing impatience with the U.S.-led occupation and the slow pace of returning control to an infant Iraqi government.

The protest in Baghdad's famous Firdos Square was the largest anti-American demonstration since the U.S.-led invasion, but the turnout was far less than the 1 million called for by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

"I do not accept having occupation forces in my country," said protester Ali Feleih Hassan, 35. "No one accepts this. I want them out. They have been here for two years, and now they have to set a timetable for their withdrawal."

President Bush has said he will not pull troops out of Iraq until the security situation has improved.

Tens of thousands of people spilled into the streets of central Baghdad, waving Iraqi flags and climbing onto an abstract sculpture said to represent freedom and built on the spot where Saddam Hussein's statue once stood.

The protest marked a return to the limelight for al-Sadr, who had been relatively quiet since his Mahdi Army militiamen signed truces last year with U.S.-led forces after deadly clashes. Officials said the cleric did not attend because of security concerns. He has stayed close to his home in the holy city of Najaf since the U.S.-led assault on his militia in August.

No major violence was reported during Saturday's demonstration, which the Iraqi Interior Ministry agreed to protect. U.S. soldiers kept watch from behind concrete-and-barbed wire barriers.

Mahdi Army militiamen searched people entering the demonstration area as Iraqi policemen stood to the side.

Protesters burned the U.S. flag as well as cardboard cutouts of Bush and Saddam. Three effigies representing Saddam, Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair all handcuffed and dressed in red Iraqi prison jumpsuits that signified they had been condemned to death were placed on a pedestal, then symbolically toppled like the Saddam statue two years before.

Others acted out reports of prison abuse at the hands of American soldiers. Photos released last year showing U.S. soldiers piling naked inmates in a pyramid at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison have tarnished the military's reputation both here and around the world.

"Force the occupation to leave from our country," one banner read in English.

The Shiite protesters called for a jailed Saddam to face justice, holding up framed photos of al-Sadr's father, a prominent cleric executed by the ousted Iraqi leader's regime.

Al-Sadr whose supporters are largely impoverished, young Shiites was once wanted by U.S forces after he urged his militia to fight American troops. Despite his popularity in some parts of Iraqi society, he has fewer followers than Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country's most revered Shiite cleric.

Shiites make up 60 percent of Iraq's estimated 26 million people but were targeted under Saddam. Thousands were killed by Iraqi security forces.

They have risen to power in Iraq's new interim government, which named Shiite Arab Ibrahim al-Jaafari as its prime minister Thursday.

Sunni Muslim clerics also called on their followers to protest Saturday, and a large crowd gathered in the central city of Ramadi, a Sunni stronghold. Iraq's Sunni minority was dominant under Saddam and is believed to make up the backbone of the country's insurgency.

Sheikh Harth Al-Dhari, the secretary general of the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, praised both the al-Sadr protest, as well as the Sunni demonstration, telling Al-Jazeera satellite television: "We hail the demonstrations organized by the Iraqi people on the second black anniversary of their country's occupation."

Also, a car bomb detonated near a police patrol in Mosul, killing at least two policemen and injuring 13 civilians, Dr. Baha al-Deen al-Bakry of the Jumhouri hospital said.

Brig. Gen. Watheq Ali, deputy police chief of the Nineveh province, said the blast was an assassination attempt against him, although he was unhurt. He said a suicide car bomber rammed a car into the rear vehicle in his seven-car police convoy while it was stopped at a traffic light.

At least five people were killed late Friday when gunmen opened fire on their bus in Latifiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad, police and hospital officials said. Babil province police force spokesman Capt. Khalid Muthana said the victims were Iraqi soldiers dressed in civilian clothing, but Saleh Sarhan, the Defense Ministry spokesman, said the victims were civilians.

Also, U.S. Rep. Tom Osborne, R-Neb., visited Iraq and praised al-Jaafari.

"We feel that he is very optimistic about what is going to happen, and we are, too," he said.

Al-Jaafari said negotiators were still working out who would get key Cabinet posts, adding that a Kurdish candidate would lead the Foreign Ministry while the Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance would get the Interior Ministry, which oversees security for the country.

"The concept of security during the Saddam era was different," al-Jaafari said. "So we have to redefine the concept of security, and from now on the security is the security of the citizen, factory, and shop not the ruler."

In a sign of the continuing battle to train the region's security forces, two traffic policemen in Fallujah got into a fistfight Saturday with Interior Ministry security forces, and one officer was fatally shot, Lt. Mohammed Odai said. It was unclear what caused the fight.

---

Associated Press reporters Qasim Abdul-Zahra, Sinan Salaheddin and Sameer Yacoub contributed to this report.

[Moses]

Iraqis demand US out; 31 killed

Web posted at: 4/10/2005 2:56:36
Source ::: Agencies

Tens of thousands of Iraqis loyal to radical Shi’ite cleric Muqtada Al Sadr gather in Firdos Square, central Baghdad, yesterday calling for the occupying US forces to leave their country.

BAGHDAD: Tens of thousands of Shi’ite protestors poured into central Baghdad yesterday to demand that US troops leave Iraq as 31 people were killed in attacks on the second anniversary of Saddam Hussein’s downfall.

Chanting “No, no, USA,” followers of radical cleric Muqtada Al Sadr converged on Firdus Square, where US troops helped Iraqis pull down a huge statue of former president Saddam two years ago — an act televised around the world that symbolised the end of the old regime. The rally, organised by Sadr, is believed to be the largest demonstration since US troops entered the country.

“O God, cut off their necks, the way they are cutting off our necks and terrorising us,” said Sadr representative Sheikh Nasir Al Saaidi, reading a speech from his boss. “There will be no peace, no security, until the occupation leaves.” Iraqi flags fluttered in the sea of demonstrators, many of whom were dressed in black, the uniform of Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia. Many wore green and black Islamic headbands.

Sadr followers said the rally was the first of many to pressure the new Iraqi government to demand that US troops withdraw, but they stressed Sadr was not calling for a resumption of armed struggle against the US military. “We’ve organised ourselves now to continue these demonstrations until we force the government and national assembly to take our demands seriously and carry them out,” Moayad Al Khazrajy, a senior aide to Sadr, said.

The aide read to the crowd Sadr’s demands of the Iraqi government. They included a quick trial for Saddam; making Thursday the second day off in the week not Saturday, the freeing of all Iraqi detainees; the strengthening of border security; and that the parliament respect the resistance and bring it into the political process.

Some waved the notorious picture of a hooded naked Iraqi detainee, with wires attached to his body. It was released during the Abu Ghraib prison scandal last year that blemished the US record in Iraq.

A shopkeeper from Sadr City, Baqr Mussa, vented frustration at the continuing US presence and the failure by the Americans to execute Saddam. He was dressed in white religious robes, symbolic of martyrdom. “We are very angry. We don’t believe we’ve just lived two years since the war. All the buildings are still burnt and destroyed,” Mussa said. “Saddam is still in the prison and they have not even judged him yet for all his crimes. We are very angry, and we want all the world to hear our voice.”

At the same time, violence against Iraqi security forces and civilians killed 31 and wounded scores more in separate incidents. In the most deadly attack, a roadside bomb killed 15 Iraqi soldiers and wounded several others on the main highway through Latifiyah, 40km south of Baghdad. On the same road, five civilians were gunned down.

Also south of Baghdad, four drivers were killed and four others wounded in an ambush on a 14-truck trade ministry convoy traveling between Kut and the capital. In Baghdad, Sayed Fadel Al Shoq, a deputy to Sadr was killed, and another deputy was injured in the southern Dura district as they drove to an anti-US protest, a Sadr official said. In Mosul, a suicide car bomber in an Opel killed a police officer and a civilian and wounded 14 others, including 11 policemen.
 

[Moses]

U.S. military: Cameraman with CBS credentials detained in Iraq

Friday April 08, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) A cameraman carrying CBS press credentials was detained in Iraq earlier this week on suspicion of insurgent activity, the U.S. military said Friday.

The cameraman suffered minor injuries Tuesday during a battle between U.S. soldiers and suspected insurgents, the military said. He was standing next to an alleged insurgent who was killed during the shootout, the statement said.

The military issued a statement then saying the cameraman was shot because his equipment was mistaken for a weapon.

But on Friday, the military said the cameraman was detained because there was probable cause to believe he posed ``an imperative threat to coalition forces.''

``He is currently detained and will be processed as any other security detainee,'' the statement said.

CBS News spokeswoman Leigh Farris said, ``We're looking into the situation.''

A spokesman for Task Force Freedom, Capt. Mark Walter, said the reporter suffered minor wounds and was with ``a number of people'' involved in the shootout.

Walter said the reporter was detained immediately after the incident, in part because of statements from witnesses to the battle.

Officials are investigating the man's previous activities as well as ``his alleged support of anti-Iraqi insurgency activities,'' the statement said.


(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[Moses]

US general: Iraq abuse trials unfair

Friday 08 April 2005 11:18 PM GMT


Brigadier Karpinski says punishments have been selective

A US general, who oversaw prisons in occupied Iraq, has said that only low-ranking soldiers have been singled out and punished for prisoner abuse.


Brigadier Janis Karpinski, who oversaw 17 Iraqi prisons including Abu Ghraib, said the reservists jailed to date did not devise techniques such as stacking up naked prisoners or forcing them to masturbate.

"I don't think that any of them had a fair opportunity. I will never change my position on that," she said.

"I guarantee you that none of those soldiers knew enough about the Arab culture to be able to say this is the right thing that we should do," she said."

"Somebody who was very familiar with what would work told them how to do those things."

Fixing responsibility

Since the prison scandal broke last year, six soldiers have admitted abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Another, Charles Graner, contended he was following orders to soften up prisoners, but a military court rejected that line and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.

"Look, I am not defending any of them," Karpinski said. "There were some things that they did wrong, they crossed the line. What I am saying for them is fair and equal."

"Graner's sentence is 10 years. Soldiers that were responsible for actually a prisoner's death … have been simply removed from the military. In some cases it was a reduction in rank."

Karpinski said she was in the dark about abuses and denied any personal involvement.

Now suspended from her command of the 800th Military Police brigade in Iraq, Karpinski is writing a book on Abu Ghraib prison.

---

You can find this article at:
english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D05C5547-F610-4FC0-AC0C-4FDC203F6F47.htm

Close

[Moses]

washingtonpost.com

Suspect's Death Evokes Hussein Era

Brutal Beating Reminiscent of Methods of Ex-President's Enforcers, Relatives Say

By Salih Saif Aldin and John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, April 9, 2005; Page A18


TIKRIT, Iraq -- After the arrival of the Americans and the fall of Saddam Hussein, Hameed Rasheed Sultan and his family thought they had seen the last of the techniques favored by Iraq's old justice system: torture, disappearances and death-in-custody.

But in January Hameed's younger brother, Zawba, was arrested by Iraqi police officers at the family's home, and two days later he turned up dead at a local hospital. Pictures show he had been brutally beaten.

A senior Tikrit police official, Col. Jasim Hussein Jbara, said in an interview that Zawba died of low blood pressure shortly after he confessed to blowing up a car outside a shopping mall. There will be no investigation of his death, Jbara said.

The American military initially showed interest in the case and collected evidence, but dropped the matter after a few weeks. An Army spokesman said the U.S. military had no jurisdiction and referred all inquiries about Zawba to the Iraqi police -- the people his brother accuses of killing him.

Hameed said he saw no evidence that anything had changed with the fall of Hussein. "They are using the same methods as the former regime," he said. "If the Americans don't solve this case, there will be no solution at all, because the Iraqi side is a gang that hangs together, and they will never reveal their secrets."

In a recent human rights report on Iraq, the State Department catalogued reports of such practices as "arbitrary deprivation of life, torture, impunity, poor prison conditions -- particularly in pretrial detention facilities -- and arbitrary arrest and detention."

"The police often continued to use the methods employed by the previous regime," the report stated. "Reportedly, coerced confessions and interrogation continued to be the favored method of investigation by police. According to one government official, hundreds of cases were pending at year's end alleging torture."

Many Iraqis see the U.S. military as the country's supreme authority, but U.S. forces technically defer to Iraqi sovereignty and do not want to be seen as dictating the country's path toward democracy and the rule of law.

An Iraqi army official who works with the U.S. military and has detailed knowledge of the case, but who refused to be quoted by name because of its sensitivity, said the Americans apparently dropped their investigation because of concern that it would infringe on Iraqi sovereignty.

"The people want the Americans to arrest the Iraqis" who were behind the killing, and who are well known, the officer said. "But when we talk to the Americans about this, they say it's a matter of Iraqi sovereignty" and refuse to get involved.

In an e-mail response to questions about Zawba's death, Maj. Richard Goldenberg, a spokesman for the U.S. Army in Tikrit, said: "We recognize and respect the Iraqi Police Services and law enforcement personnel to conduct their own operations and internal investigations as needed. This is a case for Iraqi law enforcement."

Jbara, the Tikriti police colonel, runs the unit that was interrogating Zawba just before he died. Jbara said Zawba, 37, confessed to detonating a car bomb at a mall on Jan. 26 and to being a member of a terrorist group responsible for killing and wounding more than 50 people.

Two other people arrested with him -- his cousin, Bashar Subhi Sultan, 27, and a young neighbor, Safaa Ismail Douri, 15 -- also confessed to being involved in the car bombing, Jbara said, and are being held for trial. Relatives said the suspects, who were arrested early on Jan. 27, denied involvement in the bombing. Zawba, a father of two who taught construction at a local trade school, and Bashar, who studied at that school, were near the mall the day of the bombing only because they were waiting at a bus stop for a relative returning from a trip to Mecca, their brothers said in interviews.

Safaa's father, Ibrahim Ismail Douri, said his son was at the mall because he had just returned from an out-of-town bus trip. He said he last saw his son on Jan. 29 and that it was clear he had been beaten.

"I went to see my son at the police station, and I saw the police carrying him in a blanket. . . . He was hardly talking, and he said, 'Father, I was beaten and forced to confess and say that Zawba and Bashar were involved in the attack.' "

Douri said his son told him that after the explosion, he was afraid and started to run, " 'and the police said whoever ran was involved in making the bomb, so they arrested me.' "

A fourth suspect, Mahmoud Mohammed Ugab, 29, an Iraqi army officer, said in an interview that he also was arrested in connection with the bombing and tortured by officers under Jbara's command. During Ugab's interrogation, Safaa Douri came to the room where he was being held and pleaded with him to say that the four of them were behind the blast, Ugab said.

In an interview at a hospital where he was being treated for his injuries, Ugab said that a police officer beat him later as Jbara demanded that he confess to participating in the bombing. Ugab said he finally relented. But on the third day of his detention, Ugab said, a U.S. Army official who was visiting the police station recognized him from a joint posting in Tikrit's Celebration Park, asked why he was being held and ordered his release.

The officer "went to Col. Jbara's office and said, 'Mahmoud worked with me for 13 days, and I can say he has nothing to do with any attack or operation,' " Ugab said.

Around that time, Hameed and two of Bashar's brothers, Yasser and Qais, had a meeting with Jbara at the police colonel's house to ask for the release of Zawba and Bashar, Hameed and Yasser said in interviews.

According to a complaint filed by Hameed with the U.S. military in Tikrit, Jbara demanded that the families pay $5,000 each for the release of their relatives. Hameed and Yasser repeated the allegation in follow-up interviews.

In a telephone interview, Jbara denied that he or anyone solicited a bribe. "I dare anyone to say that Col. Jasim received $1," he said. "These are lies. There is an Iraqi government, and I am ready for an investigation of this."

Army Capt. Saad Hazim said in an interview that he was at home asleep on Jan. 29 when he received a telephone call at about 3 a.m. from an informant at Tikrit Hospital who said that two bodies had been brought into the morgue by police. One apparently was alive and was immediately taken to the hospital's emergency room. The near-death patient, Hazim said, was Zawba.

The second patient, who remains unidentified, died of "acute failure of the heart as a result of strong shocks," according to a copy of his death report. Hazim said that the hospital source, whom he declined to identify, told him that police evacuated the entire emergency room floor, ordering out all the doctors, nurses and patients. "The police had deployed across the whole floor, all with uniforms, flak jackets and black masks," he said.

According to a second Iraqi army officer, "The police took all the nurses and doctors to one room and locked the door in order not to reveal the secret" that their suspect was in critical condition.

Hazim said Zawba was pronounced dead about two hours later.

Jbara said that Zawba died "because of a health situation he was dealing with even before his arrest."

Pictures of Zawba's body given to The Post by his family show a deep gash above his right eye, a badly bruised right cheek bone and swollen nose. His legs are darkly discolored, with deep purple bruises, and his back and legs are scarred by what appear to be burn marks.

Challenged on his account, Jbara said: "His health situation was not good during the investigation. His blood pressure decreased, and that's in the medical documents." He refused to release the documents.

Hameed said his brother "was completely healthy" before his arrest. He said U.S. Army Capt. Michael Gruber, a liaison officer with the U.S.-Iraqi Army Joint Coordination Center in Tikrit, investigated the death and had an aide read Zawba's death report to him.

"It said there were signs of beating on the skull and torture by electricity," Hameed said. "There were also signs of beating in the chest and abdomen areas and internal damage to the kidney."

An Iraqi army official in the coordination center who reviewed the death report said it showed Zawba had burn marks and was beaten around his head. The cause of death was "torture -- the signs are completely obvious," he said. He added that it was clear from the evidence that Zawba had had nothing to do with the Jan. 26 mall bombing.

Gruber, in a brief telephone conversation, declined to discuss the case without authorization, which his superiors refused to grant.

---

Anderson reported from Baghdad.

[Moses]

April 8, 2005

Models of Occupation

Israel is the Key to Bush's Iraq Strategy

By NEVE GORDON

Berkeley, California

Israel is the key to understanding President Bush's strategy in Iraq. Not because it had any influence over the decision-making process leading to the 2nd Gulf War, but because the current Administration has adopted the "democratic occupation" model that Israel introduced in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

After the eruption of the first Palestinian Intifada in December 1987, Israel had to deploy a relatively large number of troops aided by tanks and armored vehicles to sustain the occupation -- exactly as the US is now doing in Iraq. This transformed the Israeli occupation from an economically profitable enterprise into a financial liability, leading Israel to come up with the ingenious idea of outsourcing the responsibility for the population while continuing to control the natural resources -- in this case land and water.

Following a series of negotiations, the Palestinian Authority (PA) was established; an entity that willingly took on the role of managing the daily lives of the inhabitants in the Occupied Territories, while Israel maintained control of more than 80 percent of the land. Within a matter of months the civil institutions needed to administer populations in modern societies -- inter alia education, health and welfare -- were passed from Israel to the hands of the fledgling authority, which was also given some limited form of sovereignty. Thus, without renouncing its right to rule the West Bank and Gaza, Israel transferred responsibility for the residents to a subcontractor of sorts -- the PA -- and in this way dramatically reduced the cost of the occupation.

The democratic elections that took place in the Occupied Territories in January 1996 were crucial for bestowing upon the PA a degree of legitimacy. To be sure, the PA did not end up executing all of Israel's wishes, and in many ways became a recalcitrant entity, but this has little to do with Israel's initial objectives.

Israel's occupation is crucial for understanding Iraq for two essential reasons. First, like Israel, the U.S. has made a distinction between the occupied inhabitants and their resources. The Bush Administration's idea is to allow the Iraqis to manage themselves and in this way to cut the cost of the occupation, while at the same time continuing to control the rich oil fields. The important question now is which U.S. corporations will profit most from the expected 200 percent increase in Iraqi oil production -- from 2.1 to 6 million barrels a day.

Second, whereas Israel was certainly not the first country to stage democratic elections in an occupied context, it was the first power to reintroduce this practice in a post-colonial age so as to legitimize an ongoing occupation. The Bush Administration found this strategy useful because it fits extremely well with the narrative about "spreading freedom" to the Middle East. Since one cannot promote freedom and install a puppet government at the same time, Bush was adamant about holding elections. The crux of the matter is that the goal of these elections is not to transfer power and authority to the Iraqi people, but rather to legitimize ongoing U.S. control in the region.

Therefore the current debate among liberals about whether the elections in Iraq followed the minimum procedures informing a fair democratic process is actually beside the point. Even if Jimmy Carter himself had approved the elections, the Iraqis would still have no say, for example, about the deployment of foreign troops in their country. When all is said and done, the new "democratic government" in Iraq was created to manage the local population so that the occupying power's economic elite can enjoy the spoils.

---

Neve Gordon teaches politics at Ben-Gurion University, Israel. He is currently a visiting scholar at the Human Rights Center and Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. His book From the Margins of Globalization: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights is scheduled to appear next month (Rowman and Littlefield). He can be reached at [e-mail]

[Moses]

Democracy Or Colonial Dictatorship?

By Ghali Hassan

11 April, 2005
Countercurrents.org


....Meanwhile, two years have passed since the US-Britain armies invaded Iraq; more Iraqis today are imprisoned than at any point in the history of Iraq. Innocent men, women and children are illegally held at notorious prisons of abuse, torture and murder. Many of Iraqi prisoners are held secretly in different locations and beyond the reach of any human rights monitors. Occupation forces killed Iraqis routinely, with complete impunity, at checkpoints, in their homes, and in detention facilities. A report in the credible British journal, The Lancet, on November 2004, shows that from March 2003 to October 2004, US armed forces and its mercenaries have killed more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians; over half of them were women and children. The estimate is very conservative in that it excluded the high civilians death in Fallujah, and the complete destruction of a once vibrant city of 300,000 people. Other major Iraqi cities and towns are experiencing similar destruction and atrocities, with the full cooperation of Western mainstream media.

Malnutrition among Iraqi children under the age of 5 years have doubled to nearly 8 percent since the US invasion of Iraq as a result of lack of drinking water, food, and adequate sanitation. A report prepared for the UN Human Rights Commission reveals that more than a quarter (3-4 millions) of Iraqi children do not get enough food to eat. Food, drinking water and the supply of electricity have continued to decrease to levels below to that during the genocidal sanctions. Unemployment among Iraqis is more than 70 percent and the population purchasing power at a dangerous level. Iraq's economy has worsened, poverty has increased and living standards in Iraq declined markedly. Iraqis continue to be humiliated and abused in violent house-to-house searches being conducted by US forces, accompanied by the criminal Kurdish Peshmerga militias. All these atrocities and destruction are committed with the full knowledge and blessing of the new US-approved Iraqi "government".

Will the Iraqi people allow this form of colonial dictatorship to continue? I do not believe so. Demonstrations against the Occupation and the new "government" have already taken place in many parts of Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of people marched in Baghdad on Saturday denouncing the US
Occupation and terrorism in Iraq, and demanding the release of Iraqi prisoners and detainees Link here.

The war against Iraq was a murderous crime and those who are responsible for it, and for the destruction of Iraqi society, should face war crimes trials. The US-British Occupation is illegal and has failed to deliver Iraqis' most basic necessities and security, let alone 'freedom' or 'democracy'.

The Iraqi people Resistance will continue until the US end its murderous Occupation of Iraq. Resistance against the Occupation is the unquestionable right of the Iraqi people to self-determination. The Iraqi people had enough of tyranny and dictatorship. Colonial dictatorship has been tried in Iraq before and has ended in bloodbath. The Iraqi people have rejected the presence of the US, and the violence brought with it. The US has no reason to be in Iraq. All the reasons for this act of aggression and the Occupation of Iraq have been exposed as lies.

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Ghali Hassan lives in Perth, Western Australia.