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MASSIVE POST-ELECTION ASSAULT LOOMS: WE MUST ACT NOW |
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LONDON:
MEET UP FOR DIRECT ACTION MANCHESTER: Rally and Vigil for peace: No more
bloodshed - Withdraw the MILTON
KEYNES: outside railway station Central
Milton Keynes, 5:30-7:00pm, OSWESTRY: Oswestry, Wednesday 10th, Bailey Street,
11.30am-1pm. Oswestry WREXHAM: Candle-lit vigil at Plas Coch Roundabout
on Mold Road, Wrexham Dear friends and fellow anti-war activists, 'U.S. Army and Marine units thrust through the center of ... Fallujah' today (AP, 9 November) as US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declared that '[c]ivilians in the city ... got plenty of warning to steer clear of the fighting between U.S. and insurgent forces' (AP, 9 November). Those remaining - including men under 45, whom US forces 'warned ... through loudspeakers and leaflets on Friday' would be detained if they tried to leave the city (Reuters, 5 Nov) - will, presumably, have only themselves to blame when their houses are flattened by US bombs or they are shot by US snipers. SQUELCHING THE TRUTH Author and activist Rahul Mahajan (who spent time in Fallujah
during the April siege) notes that PROTEST BREAKS OUT ACROSS UK Tonight actions will be taking place in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Brighton, Bristol, Oxford, Sheffield, and Wrexham (again see www.indymedia.org.uk for details). More actions are planned for tomorrow (see [A] below). Also, don't forget this Sunday's nonviolent direct action training workshop (see [B] below) - Fallujah is just one of 20-30 towns and cities across Iraq that where the Pentagon is planning to 'take back control' before January. Yours in solidarity, Gabriel Dear friends, Voices supporters and fellow anti-war activists, Please find on this page a list of actions and resources to protest against the looming massive assault on Fallujah and to resist it if it starts. THE GATHERING STORM There are currently about 2,500 US troops around Fallujah, where the US is also 'assembl[ing] ... heavy artillery and Abrams battle tanks, A-10 "Warthog" helicopter gunships, and FA-18, F-16 and F-15E warplanes armed with laser and satellite-guided 500lb bombs' (Independent, 28 Oct). Nonetheless, 'US military commanders are said to believe that a force of 10,000 [US and Iraqi soldiers] is necessary to take and hold the city,' so it is probably still a little way off - time the anti-war movement should make good use of. WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE When the US attacked Fallujah in April, killing 600 Iraqi civilians (see [I] below) Tony Blair publicly stood lock-step with the US Government 'den[ying] . heavy-handedness by US forces' (Guardian, 20 Apr) and asserting that it was 'perfectly right and proper that [the US] take action' (BBC, 28 Apr). Privately, however, he 'appealed to Washington to halt the offensive' (LA Times, 24 Oct). Why? 'The Prime Minister had been under pressure for more than a year from an antiwar majority in his ruling Labour Party,' and civilian casualties were 'causing opposition to flare' - strongly suggesting that the previous 18 months anti-war activism made a difference and saved lives. Ironically though, there was little in the way of organised protest by the UK anti-war movement in April itself. What might have been achieved if protests had been taking place up and down the country? If we can only grasp it, we now have the opportunity to find out. Best wishes, Gabriel
'In the name of recapturing Iraqi cities so that polling can take place, US forces have already started – and are planning to widen – a campaign of air strikes which will probably cause more civilian casualties than last year's invasion' (Guardian, 9 Oct). Bush's re-election makes immediate and sustained opposition to the escalation more urgent than ever. A massive attack on Fallujah, where US forces massacred hundreds of Iraqis in April, is now imminent and will, in the words of one US official, be “very bloody and nasty” (Washington Post on-line edition, 16 Oct). IT'S
TIME BLAIR
WAVERED WE
CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE Please join us on the 7th November! Called by
Stop the Attacks – an ad hoc collection of anti-war activists
old and new.
Angry at the ongoing carnage in Iraq? Want to take part in (or organise) some direct action or civil disobedience but feel you lack the confidence, skills or knowledge? Then this is the workshop for you! The aim of the NVDA workshop is to give you the chance to explore issues and techniques that will help build confidence in new and more experienced activists alike. This workshop will look at practical techniques to deal with confrontational situations nonviolently, hold an effective blockade or sit down protest, and make decisions quickly and democratically in an action situation. It'll also look at the support roles that are vital to making actions happen. There will also be a full briefing on your legal rights and what happens should you get arrested. The workshop is a largely practical one, so come prepared for some physical exercises. Don't worry if there are limits to your physical mobility - we can accommodate everyone, just let the workshop leaders know when you get there. Please wear loose, sturdy and comfortable clothes. Organised by Voices UK. 0845 458 2564. If your group would like to attend the workshop but can't make it into London then Seeds for Change (www.seedsforchange.org.uk, 0845 458 4776 ) run excellent workshops on these and other topics and - provided you can cover their travel expenses - are prepared to travel the length and breadth of the country to come to you. Use them!
LONDON: If you are organising an action then please make make sure to send info. to the following e-mails when you publicise your event: office@stopwar.org.uk, iraqfocus@riseup.net and voices@voicesuk.org. JNV has produced two petitions, one concentrating on the immediate crisis, the other including the demand for troops to be withdrawn. PDFs for both petitions can be downloaded from here. - Basic Petition Text: - Top Tips For Using This Petition: a) One reason for their success is that they had a huge poster version of the text behind them so that people knew what they were signing. People were queueing to sign. So JNV has included in the pdf (see web-link above) full A4 size versions of the text, for you to enlarge to A3 or larger size (some photocopy shops can enlarge to A1). b) Let the local radio and newspapers know about your petitioning, and take your own photos to send to the paper if they do not send a photographer themselves. Whatever the response of your local MP when you present the petition, that is worth press releasing also. c) Please let KNV know the results of your petitioning and if you have any suggestions for improving the petition or how to present it on the street/at work. There may be further editions of this petition in future weeks. You can e-mail JNV at info@j-n-v.org
This is something that anyone and everyone can do. It is suggested that you ask your MP to ask Geoff Hoon to recall the Black Watch from central Iraq, and to withdraw all British support for the planned US assaults. It is also suggested that when/if you receive a response, it is well worth writing a reply, as it is this reply of yours that has an impact. Contact
your MP now: You may find the following quotes from US and UK soldiers in Iraq helpful: “We still haven’t found any WMD. It was wrong, totally wrong. The way I feel is that we are fighting an American war. It is all for Bush’s cabinet and campaign” (Anonymous UK corporal with the Cheshire regiment in Basra, Independent on Sunday, 11 July). “We shouldn’t be here. There was no reason for invading this country in the first place. We just came here and [angered people] and killed a lot of innocent people. I don’t enjoy killing women and children, it’s not my thing.” (Anonymous marine infantryman, AP, 22 September 2004). MASSACRE IN FALLUJAH: APRIL 2004 - Hundreds of Iraqis were killed, many of them civilians. On 11 April the director of Fallujah’s general hospital, Rafie al-Issawi, estimated – on the basis of figures gathered from four clinics around the city as well as the hospital itself - that more than 600 people had been killed and that ‘the vast majority of the dead were women, children and the elderly’ (Guardian, 12 April). - Warplanes, fighter bombers, military helicopters, gunships and remotely piloted Predator reconnaissance aircraft were all used in the attack on the city (New York Times, 30 April 2004). Houses - and at least one mosque - were attacked from the air, reportedly killing scores of civilians: * ‘An airborne assault on a mosque killed at least 40 worshippers attending prayers’ on 7 April and ’16 children and eight women were reported to have been killed when US aircraft hit four houses’ the previous day (Independent, 8 April). * Menem Latif Hussain told the Guardian how a house at the end of his street suffered from a direct hit from a powerful bomb. “We ran to the house because they were my friends. In the garden I saw three men had been sitting on a bench. They were all dead, they had been cut in half by the bomb’ (Guardian, 24 April). - There were numerous press reports of US snipers firing on – and killing – unarmed civilians: * Mohammed Hadi, told the Telegraph that US marines snipers had taken up position in the minarets of a local mosque and shot dead his neighbour (12 April). “He was just on his way to buy tomatoes,” he told the paper. And 17-year-old Hassan Monem, who claimed that two of his friends ‘were shot as they stood in my yard.’ * Likewise, Ali, 28, who had managed to escape with part of his family, related how “one man in an Opel drove his wife and children to the bridge so they would walk over. As he drove back to town, an American sniper killed him” (Guardian, 12 April). * Abu Mohammed (30) told the Guardian that as he “was about to leave [Fallujah] there were two ladies trying to get out. American snipers shot them dead. Their bodies are still lying out on the street in al-Jumhuriya” (30 April). One US Marine Major told Time magazine that it was “hard to differentiate between people who are insurgents or civilians. You just have to go with your gut feeling.” (Time, 11 April). A marine corporal explained that “Sometimes a guy will go down and I’ll let him scream a bit to destroy the morale of his buddies,” a marine corporal explained. “Then I’ll use a second shot” (Daily Oakland Press, 17 April). A senior UK army officer, told the Sunday Telegraph that “when US troops are attacked with mortars in Baghdad they use mortar-locating radar to find the firing point and then attack the general area with artillery, even though the area they are attacking may be in the middle of a densely populated residential area … They are not concerned about the Iraqi loss of life in the way the British are’, ‘they view [Iraqis] as untermenschen [the Nazi expression for “sub-humans”]. Their attitude towards the Iraqis is tragic, it’s awful’ (11 April). - Several reports strongly suggested that US snipers targeted ambulances in Fallujah. The head of mission of a European humanitarian agency with staff in Fallujah told BBC News Online that two of their ambulances had been shot at ‘probably by US snipers’ (BBC, 23 April); and a UK national, Jo Wilding, was present in a clearly marked ambulance that she claims was shot at by US snipers (see www.wildfirejo.org.uk/feature/display/114/index.php). - The New York Times reported that at least one battalion [in Fallujah] had ‘orders to shoot any male of military age on the streets after dark, armed or not (14 April). Recounting how he shot dead ‘an Iraqi man … walking down the street in no-man’s land … [who had] his hands suspiciously in his pockets’, Corporal Ryan Long from Alpha Company explained: “I got one of my juniors to fire a warning shot, but the guy kept on walking, so I said: ‘Let me do it’ … Last year I’d have never shot a guy without a weapon’’ (Times, 15 April). - So many Iraqis were killed that the Fallujah Sports Club was turned into a makeshift cemetery. Times reporter Stephen Farrell counted 32 graves on the pitch and 180 more on the practice park, including the graves of Omar (9, killed 9 April), Wisam Salah (eight months) and Mohammed Khalaf (15 months) (Times, 3 May). ‘The gravediggers said the cemetery was full of women and children’ (New York Times, 27 April). - ‘The city’s main hospital … was closed by the marines’ and, according to the Iraq emergency co-ordinator for Medicins sans Frontieres – who visited Fallujah during the fighting – “The Americans put a sniper on top of the hospital’s water tower” in violation of the Geneva Convention (Guardian, 24 April). If
your MP is a particularly recalcitrant character, who thinks
the occupation of Iraq is a jolly good thing then maybe you
should go and occupy their office. This isn't something
that anyone and everyone can do, but it can impress on your MP how strongly
you feel about her/his attitude towards the imminent attacks.
A thorough guide to MP-office-occupation is available on-line
at
Free copies of Voices latest postcard, 'Stop the Killing in Iraq', featuring recent pictures of Iraqis injured and killed in US attacks are available on request from Voices. See the postcard here.
The Iraq Body Count (IBC) website (www.iraqbodycount.org) has published its analysis of the civilian dealth toll in the April 2004 siege of Falluja. This analysis leads to the conclusion that betweeen 572 and 616 of the approximately 800 reported deaths were of civilians, with over 300 of these being women and children. A Falluja Archive (http://www.iraqbodycount.net/resources/falluja/) carrying relevant and related excerpts from nearly three hundred contemporary news reports is also being made available on the website, and constitutes the largest publicly-available resource for investigators researching the human consequences of the siege. IBC's number for the civilian dead emerges from detailed and exhaustive analysis of these reports as well as others more recently published. Press spokesman, John Sloboda said "Data recently released to the public by the Iraqi Health Ministry has allowed IBC to resolve a problem we have been struggling with for months: how to reconcile casualty figures reported by local doctors of 800 total dead with a much lower estimate (280 dead) produced in short order by the Iraqi Health Ministry (IHM), soon after US Gen. Mark Kimmitt told the press that the CPA would ask the Ministry to 'get a fair, honest and credible' figure. Details of our analysis are provided on the website, but it now appears incontrovertible that the IHM estimate was quietly withdrawn once media attention moved away from Falluja, leading us to conclude that their estimate was acknowledged to be flawed". The IBC totals are based on multiply-cited reports from doctors and eyewitnesses that no less than 308 of those killed were women and children. This number demonstrates the huge impact of US attacks on civilian areas, and allows the conclusion to be drawn that many of the males killed must also have been non-combatants. There are clear reports of 600 people killed in total up until April 12th, most of them killed before US forces began to permit women and children to be evacuated from the town. Civilian totals have been derived by assuming a conservative ratio of one civilian adult male killed for every woman killed prior to April 12th, and by using the minimum-maximum range to account for differing possible numbers of women and children remaining in the targeted areas after the exodus had begun. The project's Principal Researcher, Hamit Dardagan, commented "The unique IBC Falluja Archive allows members of the public to examine for themselves the multiple violations which yielded this shocking toll. These include attacks on ambulances and sniper fire at children as well as the aerial bombardment of residential areas. Talk of "precision strikes" is mere techno-babble when these are part of military campaigns causing thousands of civilian deaths and injuries. "The failed US attempt to "pacify" Falluja via "overwhelming" military means was first and foremost a disaster for its civilian population. The fact that it also embarrassed those who ordered it is of little sigificance in comparison, except in one regard. Current US plans to launch a "final assault" on Falluja, supported by back filling from UK troops, suggest that we can expect another human catastrophe whose scale no one can judge in advance but which will certainly result in the destruction of innocent lives. The question planners in Washington, London and Baghdad - and the public at large - need to consider is this: are the next attacks being planned as a true measure of last resort? If not, it is not just mass slaughter that is being contemplated here, but mass murder." |
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