|
VOICES
NEWSLETTER (December 2004 / January 2005)
Download a PDF version
of the newsletter
'Screaming
women and children'
Dying children
Iraq's debts &
the IMF
Oil
'A gentleman's war'
Human Rights
100,000 deaths
Demonstration
elections
Detainees
speaking tour
Resistance round-up
Brian's law
US/UK soldiers speak out
Bush in Britain
Resources
'Screaming
women and children'
The much-heralded
ground assault on Fallujah finally began on 8 Nov, after more
than two months of aerial attacks killing scores of civilians.
Based on reports from aid workers, Fallujah residents and refugees,
a high-ranking Red Cross official estimated that “at least
800 civilians” were killed in the first 9 days of the attack
(IPS, 16 Nov). US-appointed Iraqi Prime
Minister Allawi, on the other hand, ‘said he d[idn’t]
believe any civilians were killed in the offensive’ (Reuters,
15 Nov).
War crimes
Once again the US appears to be guilty of serious war crimes:
the city was placed ‘under a strict night-time shoot-to-kill
curfew’ with ‘anyone spotted in the soldiers’
night vision sights…shot’ (Times, 12 Nov);
male refugees were prevented from leaving the combat zone (AP,
13 Nov); and US forces were filmed killing an unarmed, wounded
Iraqi (Guardian, 16 Nov). Refugees from the city claimed
that ‘a large number of people, including children, were
killed by American snipers’ (Independent, 24 Nov)
and that the US had used cluster bombs and phosphorus weapons
that caused severe burns (IPS, 16 Nov).
Beyond Fallujah
Earlier this year ‘Pentagon planners ... identified 20 to
30 towns and cities in Iraq…[to] be brought under control
before nationwide elections…in January’ (NYT,
8 Oct) and the attack on Fallujah was swiftly followed by a second
major offensive, this time ‘involving more than 5,000 US
and Iraqi troops, backed by fighter bombers and helicopters’
and the SAS, aimed at ‘regaining insurgent strongholds in
central Iraq’ (Guardian, 24 Nov).
Britain’s role
British troops played an active support role in the assault on
Fallujah, with hundreds of troops redeployed from Southern Iraq
to form part of an “outer ring of steel” around the
city (Independent, 22 Oct). On 26 Nov the Telegraph reported
‘the screams of women and children ... echo[ing] through
the cold night air’ as British soldiers ‘wearing night-vision
goggles kicked down doors and threw stun grenades into houses…on
the Eastern bank of the Euphrates’.
This is not some distant conflict, fought by foreign governments.
These are our troops occupying someone else’s country &
killing and detaining its people. How we choose to respond is
surely one of thegreat moral challenges of our time.
For more on the November attack on Fallujah see the JNV briefing
Onslaught:
The Attack on Fallujah.
Dying
children
‘Acute malnutrition among
young children in Iraq has almost doubled since the US-led invasion
in March 2003,’ according to a study carried out for UNICEF
by the Oslo-based Fafo institute (FT, 24 Nov).
According
to the survey of 22,000 homes, conducted in April and May of this
year, acute malnutrition among children aged between six months
and five years has risen from 4% before the invasion to 7.7%.
‘The new figure translates to roughly 400,000 Iraqi children
suffering from “wasting,” a condition characterized
by chronic diarrhea and dangerous deficiencies of protein’
(Washington Post, 21 Nov). ‘Iraq’s
child malnutrition rate now roughly equals that of Burundi, a
central African nation torn by more than a decade of war. It is
far higher than rates in Uganda and Haiti.’
Abdullah
‘“Things have been worse for me since the war,”
said Kasim Said, a day laborer who was at Baghdad’s main
children’s hospital to visit his ailing year-old son, Abdullah.
The child, lying on a pillow with a Winnie the Pooh washcloth
to keep the flies off his head, weighs just 11 pounds. “During
the previous regime, I used to work on the government projects.
Now there are no projects,” his father said. When he finds
work … he can bring home $10 to $14 a day. If his wife is
fortunate enough to find a can of Isomil, the nutritional supplement
that doctors recommend, she pays $7 for it. “But the lady
in the next bed said she just paid $10,” said Suad Ahmed,
who sat cross-legged on a bed in the same ward, trying to console
her skeletal 4-month-old granddaughter, Hiba, who suffers from
chronic diarrhea.’
Not everyone is feeling the pinch though: the Washington Post
reports that the Bush Administration ‘will seek
about $70 billion in emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan early next year’ including ‘at
least an additional $30 billion for combat activity in Iraq’
(5 Nov).
Iraq's
debts & the IMF
In
November, the Paris Club – made up of 19 of the world’s
richest countries - reached an agreement to cancel 80% of the
$38.9bn owed to it by Iraq. 30% was to be written off immediately,
a further 30% ... when Iraq agrees on an IMF program expected
in 2005 and the final 20% cancelled in 2008, if Iraq completes
the 3-year IMF program (Reuters, 21 Nov).
Oxfam considers ‘much… perhaps all’ of Iraq’s
debts are odious and that Iraqis should therefore not be forced
to pay them (Oxfam briefing paper, May 2003).
‘Assuming all non-Paris Club creditors agree to the 80%
reduction, which is far from certain, Iraq would still be shackled
with over $25bn of debt … on top of the new loans being
peddled by the IMF and World Bank’ and at least $31bn of
war reparations stemming from the 1991 Gulf War (JubileeIraq.org,
21 Nov).
‘The IMF has long used [its so-called structural adjustment]
programmes to sideline or undermine parliaments in order to impose
its extreme - and often devastating - free-market agenda on devel-oping
countries. Now…[the new Iraqi parliament] will find virtually
every important economic decision predetermined by the coterie
of rich countries that runs the IMF. For example, the IMF - whose
board is chaired by Gordon Brown - has already said a new [Iraqi]
government must undertake tax reform, financial sector reform
and restructuring of state-owned enterprises, not introduce new
trade restrictions, and only “provide the minimum adequate
level of social support”’ (letter to the FT
from WDM and Jubilee Iraq, 25 Nov).
The unelected Iraqi government has already unveiled plans to phase
out subsidies on basic products, such as oil and electricity as
part of ‘a three year economic plan, compiled…in cooperation
with the World Bank and the [IMF]’ (AFP, 23 Oct).
For more info: www.jubileeiraq.org
Oil
‘[The] reason why we
are taking the action that we are taking [against Iraq] is nothing
to do with oil’ (Tony Blair, Hansard, 15 Jan. 2003, column
675)
‘After the nationalizations that swept the oil producing
countries, beginning with Iraq’s nationalization in 1972,
the oil multinationals lost much of their role in production,
known in the oil business as “upstream.”’ (Oil
in Iraq: the heart of the crisis, GlobalPolicyForum.org, Dec.
’02).
Now, Iraq’s unelected, US-appointed government ‘has
issued an open invitation to the world’s largest oil companies
to exploit its vast reserves’ (Independent on Sunday,
17 Oct). In an interview in a Shell newsletter Iraq’s Oil
Minister said that ‘Iraq would open its doors to the oil
giants early next year. “We would like to open a dialogue
with the international oil companies [IOCs] … we think there
is room for IOCs in Iraq – in particular in the upstream,”
he explained.
Futher information:
- The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror – 90
min. documentary available on DVD from Voices. See here.
- Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America’s
Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum by Michael
Klare, Penguin, 2004
- Beyond Oil: the oil curse and solutions for an oil free
future by Jo Hamilton, Greg Muttitt et. al. 32 booklet on
oil and conflict, repressive regimes and climate change. Available
from the Voices office for £1 incl. p&p.
'A
gentleman's war'
“We’re the good
guys. We are Americans. We are fighting a gentleman’s war
here…”. US Lieutenant Colonel Willy Buhl, commanding
officer of a marine Battalion in Fallujah, Guardian,
23 Nov.
“[T]he
enemy has got a face. He’s called Satan. He lives in Falluja.
And we’re going to destroy him” - US Lieutenant-Colonel
Gareth Brandl, BBC,
7 Nov.
“Innocent
civilians in [Fallujah] have all the guidance they need as to
how they can avoid getting into trouble” - US Defence Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld, AP,
9 Nov.
The views of the military got plenty of
air time during the assault on Fallujah. Much less time was given
to the suffering of civilians and the destruction of homes, businesses,
health and family life for thousands of the city’s inhabitant
- not to mention those who didn’t escape with their lives.
Here are a few stories that made it through - even if only on
to the internet.
“Doctors
in Fallujah are reporting there are patients in the hospital there
who were forced out by the Americans,” said Mehdi
Abdulla, a 33 year-old ambulance driver at a hospital in Baghdad,
“Some doctors there told me they had a major operation going,
but the soldiers took the doctors away and left the patient to
die.” (Dahr Jamail – see here
- 23 Nov)
“I
was trying to get to my uncle’s house, waving a piece of
white cloth as we had been advised when they started shooting
at me. I saw two men being shot. They were just ordinary
people, they weren’t carrying weapons. The only
way to stay alive was to stay inside and hope your house did not
get hit by a shell.” (teacher Rahim Abdullah (46), Independent,
24 Nov).
‘She
weeps while telling the story. The abaya she wears cannot hide
the shaking of her body as waves of grief roll through her. “I
cannot get the image out of my mind of her foetus being blown
out of her body.” Muna Salim’s sister, Artica,
was seven months’ pregnant when two rockets from US warplanes
struck her home in Fallujah on November 1. “My sister Selma
and I only survived because we were staying at our neighbours’
house that night,” Muna continued, unable to reconcile her
survival while eight members of her family perished during
the pre-assault bombing of Fallujah that had dragged
on for weeks (Sunday Herald, 14 Nov).
‘She
lays dazed in the crowded hospital room, languidly waving her
bruised arm at the flies. Her shins, shattered [by] US soldiers
when they fired through the front door of her house,
are both covered by casts. Small plastic drainage backs filled
with red fluid sit upon her abdomen where she took shrapnel from
another bullet. Fatima Harouz, 12 years old, lives in Latifiya,
a city just south of Baghdad. Just three days ago soldiers attacked
her home. Her mother, standing with us says, “They attacked
our home and there weren’t even any resistance fighters
in our area.” Her brother was shot and killed and
his wife was wounded as their home was ransacked by soldiers.
“Before they left they killed all our chickens,” added
Fatima’s mother, her eyes a mixture of fear, shock and rage.
‘A doctor standing with us, after listening to Fatima’s
mother tell her story, looks at me and sternly asks, “This
is the freedom … in their Disney Land are there kids just
like this?” (Dahr Jamail, 17 Nov)
Action
- Order copies of this postcard to sendto Tony Blair.
- Write to the BBC and ask them why they continue to
report so few stories about what is actually happening to the
people of Fallujah and other Iraqi cities.
Human
rights
“Why
would [the Iraqis] want a strong-arm leader who’s going
to have the secret police, no freedom of speech, no free press,
no human rights, no proper law courts?” - Tony Blair, Independent,
22 Nov
The free press
As the ground assault on Fallujah got under way ‘Iraq’s
media regulator warned news organisations … to stick to
the government line on the [offensive] … or risk legal action’
(Reuters, 12 Nov).
In a statement bearing the letterhead of the Iraqi PM’s
office, Iraq’s Media High Commission declared that
news organ-isations should “set aside space…to make
the position of the Iraqi govern-ment, which expresses the aspirations
of most Iraqis, clear,” noting that they should
“guide correspondents in Fallujah…not to promote the
unrealistic positions or project nationalist tags on terrorist
gangs of criminals and killers.” “We hope you comply…otherwise
we regret we will be forced to take all the legal [sic] measures
to guarantee higher national interests.”
Human rights
Meanwhile,‘one of Iraq’s leading judicial champions
of the rule of law has been sacked … after repeated clashes
with state security agencies over arbitrary arrests and other
suspected abuses’ (AFP, 19 Oct). Zuhair al-Maliky,
the chief investigating magistrate of the US-created central criminal
court, was given no reason for his dismissal. ‘The man in
charge of the court, Luqman Thabit, was also chief judge for [Saddam]
Hussein’s special court, in which sentences were often dictated
by the Iraqi leader or his sons’ (Washington Post,
4 August).
“There was [sic] a lot of cases of torture, illegal
detention and corruption,” Maliky claimed, including
at least five cases involving the use of electric shocks on detainees,
one of which left the victim partially paralysed (AFP,
19 Oct).
100,000 deaths
A high-powered research team who conducted a cluster
sample survey inside Iraq this September has concluded that, ‘[m]aking
conservative assumptions…about 100,000 excess [Iraqi] deaths,
or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Violence
accounted for most of the excess deaths and air strikes from coalition
forces accounted for most violent deaths’ (Lancet,
published on-line 29 Oct). Furthermore, ‘most individuals
reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and children.’
‘Concerns
and doubts’
The British Government was quick to raise doubts concerning the
report. The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) voiced
‘a number of concerns … about the methodology that
had been used … centred on the fact that the technique in
question appeared to treat Iraq as if every area were one and
the same’ and had ‘been focussed primarily on areas
such as Fallujah’ (Press Briefing, 29 Oct).
Neither charge had any merit. The survey was carefully designed
to ensure that regional variation was taken into account and,
far from ‘focussing’ on areas such as Fallujah, 7
of the 33 “clusters” sampled were taken from the Kurdish
north where mortality rates had - in stark contrast to the rest
of Iraq - either barely risen or actually fallen since the invasion.
Najaf - the scene of intense fighting in April and August - was
not sampled and, by pure chance, the cluster chosen in Sadr City
‘was in an unscathed neighbourhood with no reported deaths
from the months of recent clashes.’
Furthermore since the figures obtained in Fallujah - which was
sampled, though only by pure chance - were so anomalous (violent
deaths in Fallujah constituted 37% of all reported post-invasion
deaths) the paper actually excluded this cluster in making its
main estimate, ‘that 98,000 more deaths than expected happened
after the invasion outside of Fallujah.’
Grasping at Straws
A written ministerial statement from Jack Straw, dated 17 Nov,
raised at least four additional points.
1) That some of those interviewed in the survey might
have ‘been afraid to have blamed the deaths of their relatives
on the insurgents.’
This might be true - though presumably there may also have been
Iraqis afraid to blame deaths on the occupying forces or the Iraqi
government. In any event house-holds ‘were informed about
the purpose of the survey and told that their name would not be
recorded…[and] there would be no benefits or penalties for
refusing or agreeing to participate’ and it is unclear why
they should have agreed to participate and reported deaths where
they were too frightened to identify the perpetrator.
2) That because the paper had given a so-called ‘95%
confidence interval’ of 8,000 – 198,000 (ie. there
was only a 1 in 20 chance that excess deaths fell outside this
range) ‘any figure in this range is consistent with the
data.’
However, as we have seen there are good reasons to believe that
the real figure is not towards the lower end of the spectrum:
areas of intense conflict were not sampled (or, as in the case
of Sadr City, produced unrepresentatively low results); Fallujah
was the only point sampled in Anbar province so its exclusion
also excluded all data from one of the main loci of the Sunni
insurgency; and ‘statistical outliers’ where the post-invasion
death rate was significantly lower were not excluded (if the authors
had reanalysed the data excluding the Kurdish north the lower
bound would have been significantly greater).
3) It claimed that ‘the most reliable figures for
casualties in Iraq are those provided by Iraqi hospitals to the
Iraqi Ministry of Health’ - which it said put the number
of civilians killed between 5 April 2004 and 5 October 2004 at
3,853.
Again, this would only make sense if most deaths were recorded
by Iraq’s hospitals. In fact ‘[m]any Iraqi deaths,
especially of insurgents, are never reported’ (Knight
Ridder, 25 Sept). The Government also neglected to mention
that - according to these same statistics (or at least those up
to 19 Sept) - ‘[o]perations by U.S. and multinational forces
and Iraqi police [we]re killing twice as many Iraqis - most of
them civilians - as attacks by insurgents’
4) It claimed that ‘where there have been no terrorist
incidents, there have been no casualties’, implying that
deaths caused by the occupying forces are actually the fault of
the resistance.
No evidence is provided for the former assertion, which is almost
certainly false – for instance, voices is unaware of any
“terrorist incidents” in Mukaradeeb – the scene
of a huge massacre by US forces in May (see Voices #36). Likewise
it was killings by “coalition” forces in April 2003
that sparked the current insurgency in Fallujah, not the other
way around (see Voices #35) – just as it is the US and Britain
who have invaded and occupied Iraq, killing tens of thousands
of people, not vice versa.
To summarise: The Lancet survey is an
extremely well-conducted and analysed piece of research and is
the best estimate of Iraqi deaths currently available. Its horrific
results show that far more Iraqis – including civilians
– appear to have died since the invasion than many people
thought. The British Government’s predictable response has
been to grasp at straws whilst attempting to downplay or minimise
the deadly effects of the occupation. Our response should be to
take action to terminate these ongoing crimes.
Demonstration
elections
“What’s going to happen the first time
we hold an election in Iraq, and it turns out the radicals win?
What do we do? We’re surely not going to let them take over’
- Brent Scowcroft, National Security Adviser under Bush Snr, New
York Times, 11 April 2003.
In their 1984 book Demonstration Elections: U.S.-Staged Elections
in the Dominican Republic, Vietnam and El Salvador Edward
Herman and Frank Brodhead offer the following sardonic definition
of a “demonstration election”: ‘a circus held
in a client state to assure the population of the home country
that their intrusion is well received.’ The US would very
much like to bring such a circus to Iraq but - despite the announcement
of 30 Jan as the date for Iraq’s first national election
since the invasion - the US faces serious problems if it is to
accomplish such a feat.
‘Worst-case scenario’
Indeed a recent US-financed poll found that ‘Iraq’s
religious parties … would win the largest share of votes
if an election were held today, while the US-backed government
of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is losing serious ground’
(Washington Post, 22 Oct). According to the Post ‘a
victory by Iraq’s religious parties is viewed as a worst-case
scenario’ by the Bush admin-istration, which believes that
‘a secular government led by moderates [sic] is critical.’
Three options
An April 2004 poll conducted for the US found that 86% of Iraqis
wanted US forces leave ‘immediately’ or ‘after
a permanent government is elected’ (IIACSS Poll, 14-23 April,
available on-line at iraqanalysis.org).
In theory, the government elected on 30 Jan would be able to order
US and British occupation forces out of the country – an
absolute no-no given US plans for Iraq. Therefore, as matters
stand, the US appears to have three main options:
1) Postpone the election.
Tempting but not a risk-free option for the US. It is unlikely
that Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani – who has ‘launched
a massive get-out-the-vote campaign’ – would agree
to it and if the US tries to override him ‘they will have
to be prepared for civil disobedience on a massive scale’
(LA Times, 22 Nov).
2) Hold the election but make sure voters have few real
choices.
The US has already passed laws banning the Sadrist movement -
which would probably get about a third of the Shiite vote in a
free election - from taking part in elections and granted an electoral
commission wide-ranging powers to ban candidates (see Voices briefing
As Long As We Win
for details).
This also appears to be the idea behind the “monster consensus
list” which would have bundled all the main “opposition”
parties onto one slate, potentially ‘creat[ing] an essentially
one-party election’ in the words of one New York Times
editorial (see Voices #37). However the current status of this
idea is unclear.
3) Hold the election but attempt to manipulate the result.
Though US law prohibits foreign money in domestic elections, Washington
has long used cash and dirty tricks to influence electoral outcomes
in countries as varied as Australia, Brazil, Chile, Italy, Japan,
Mongolia and the Philippines (Rogue State: A Guide to the
World’s Only Superpower by William Blum, p. 168-183).
Thus far the US has allocated $871m ‘to support democracy,
governance and elections programs in Iraq,’ including $41m
to ‘support Iraqi Interim Government national institutions,’
$234m to ‘support local and provincial government institutions’
and $30m ‘to provide technical assistance and training for
moderate [sic] and democratic [sic] political parties in Iraq’
(US State Dept, 21 Oct).
Perhaps the most likely option - if the election proceeds - is
some combination of 2) and 3) above - as happened in Afghanistan’s
October Presidential election.
The Afghan precedent
Blair praised the Afghan election as a “magnificent tribute,
not just to the courage of the Afghan people, but also to the
power of democracy” (Blair, AFP, 13 Nov). The reality was
very different.
‘[N]o time [was allowed] for anyone to emerge as a national-level
alternative to [US-protégé Hamid] Karzai, thus making
the presidential elections effectively one-candidate,’ Rahul
Mahajan observes (Bush, Iraq and Demonstration Elections, www.empirenotes.org)
and ‘[v]oters in many rural areas … [were] told by
warlords and regional commanders how to vote’ (Human
Rights Watch, 28 Sept).
Vote early, vote often
It was also ‘painfully evident that the [voter] registration
process ha[d] been seriously flawed’ (BBC, 27 Aug) with
‘the number of registered voters in several provinces …
significantly larger than the estimated population of known eligible
voters’ (HRW, 28 Sept). Asked about multiple registration
at a Kabul press conference, Karzai replied: “[I]t doesn’t
bother me. If Afghans have two registration cards and they would
like to vote twice, well, welcome. This is an exercise in democracy.
Let them exercise it twice.”
Massive fraud
Election day itself ‘play[ed] out as farce,’ Nation
correspondent Christian Parenti writes, noting that ‘[b]y
late afternoon, it [wa]s clear that … massive vote fraud
[was] under way’ (15 Nov). For one thing the “indelible”
ink used to mark voters fingers after casting their ballots was
easily wiped off and ‘lots and lots of people had mutiple
voting cards’ - including Parenti himself, a US journalist,
who was able to obtain two valid voting cards (DemocracyNow.org,
12 Oct).
Freedom on the march?
In the US Presidential debates Bush cited Afghanistan’s
election as an example of “freedom … on the march.”
In reality, Parenti observes, the Afghan election was about the
‘solidification and legitimation of a government that is
going to be heavily populated by really, really brutal, cruel
criminals, most of whom are part of the mujahedin,’ the
force created by the Pakistani Intelligence and the US during
the 1980s to fight the Soviet Union (DN!, 12 Oct). Who
will be stomped on next?
Detainees
Speaking Tour
From
13-21 November, Peggy Gish from the Christian Peacemaker Teams
(CPT), - one of the few international groups to still have a presence
in Iraq - spoke at 14 events around England - from Southend to
Manchester - about her recent work, documenting the cases of Iraqis
detained by the occupying forces and supporting non-violent efforts
by Iraqis for justice and peace. She also did interviews with
Reuters, the BBC Sunday Programme, Premier
Radio and The
Times and BBC On-line.
For the past 9 years she has braved bombs and bullets in the West
Bank and Iraq, “getting in the way” in the service
of peace and human rights.
Detainees
Despite the so-called “handover” of sovereignty on
28 June 2004, the US currently detains over 8000 Iraqis (Washington
Post, 27 Nov) and is creating a long-term detention facility
at Camp Bucca, near the Kuwaiti border.
Meanwhile, according to Pulitzer-prize winning investigative journalist
Seymour Hersh – who broke the story of the Abu Ghraib torture
photos in May – the ‘Special Access Programme’
which ‘encouraged [the] physical coercion and sexual humiliation
of Iraqi prisoners’ was ‘reconstituted’ mid-June
with ‘[t]he same rules of engagement’
The CPT are currently running an ‘Adopt
a Detainee’ campaign in which peace groups and others
write letters to the authorities on behalf of individual detainees.
Over 500 groups are now involved.
Please contact Voices if you’re interested in the Adopt
a Detainee campaign or if you would like more copies of the Justice
for Iraq’s Detainees Information and Action Briefing.
Resistance
Round-up
A sample of recent anti-war actions:
31
Oct: 5 enterprising anti-war activists take to London’s
streets to protest the looming assault on Fallujah: blocking traffic
at Oxford Circus & drawing crowds of 400+ They receive lots
of support and one passerby even joins them! They then go to Downing
Street where one of them manages to scale the gates and stands
perched above the gates for about 45mins.
2
Nov: ‘Naming the Dead’ events – readings
of lists of the names of those killed in the invasion and occupation
of Iraq – take place in 38 places across the country, from
Portsmouth to Edinburgh, to coincide with the US Presidential
election.
3
Nov: A
lone anti-war demonstrator splashes the Foreign Office with fake
blood and stencils it with the words “Don’t Attack
Fallujah, Black Watch Out”
4
Nov: 2
activists enter the bomb store at RAF Welford and write ‘Hands
off Fallujah’ on the munitions
7
Nov: Roughly 200 people hold a funeral procession to
the Cenotaph, followed by a sit-down protest blocking Whitehall,
to protest the imminent assault (see p. 5)
8
Nov: at a few hours notice protests take place in over
30 towns and cities across the UK as the ground assault on Fallujah
begins. In Edinburgh four activists spray paint the US Consulate
with the words ‘Stop the Attacks on Iraq’ and stage
a bloody die-in. In Cambridge activists climb 50 ft onto the roof
of the Guildhall and hang a giant banner reading ‘Fallujah:
Stop the Massacre’.
9
Nov: Protests in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Brighton, Bristol,
Oxford, Sheffield and Wrexham.
10
Nov: Protests in London, Manchester, Milton Keynes &
Oswestry. Activists stop traffic at Piccadilly Circus. In Wrexham,
anti-war pixies spray paint a bridge with the words ‘Impeach
Tony Blair – Liar, War Criminal, Murderer.’
24
Nov: As Parliament re-opens, 4 activists stage a series
of die-ins in and around Westminster before breezing past security
at the Cabinet office where they demand to see someone responsible
for the actions taking place in Iraq. They are arrested for burglary,
held for 24 hrs and have their houses raided and computers seized.
Brian's
law
One
of the numerous measures introduced in the Queen’s Speech
to increase ‘security’ is the Serious Organised Crime
and Police Bill. Despite its title, this bill also includes a
clause that seeks to remove Brian Haw’s continuous, 24/7
peace protest from Parliament Square which has now been running
sinceJune 2001 (initially as a protest against the sanctions).
The bill proposes to make it an offence to hinder ‘any person
from entering or leaving the Palace of Westminster’ or ‘the
proper operation of Parliament’. Additionally, ‘spoiling
the visual aspect, or otherwise spoiling the enjoyment by members
of the public, of any part of the designated area’ - a narrow-minded
reference to Brian’s vigil.
This development is a serious threat to protest in the geographical
centre of power. It comes in the wake of a whole raft of measures
that have been introduced in the past few years or may be brought
in in the near future.
This bill is specifically aimed at removing Brian as all other
attempts, legal and non-legal, have failed. Yet, as anti-terror
and anti-social behaviour legislation is increasingly used against
peaceful protest, so this law, if passed could be used against
any protest (except that with prior written permission).
A number of Brian’s supporters are building the campaign
to protect protest in the Square. Individuals and groups can sign
up to Brian’s supporters list by emailing info@parliament-square.org.uk
or phone 07791 486484. Please also get in contact if you have
ideas or can support the campaign in other ways. See Brian’s
new website for more: www.parliament-square.org.uk.
US/UK Soldiers Speak Out
‘More and
more U.S. soldiers are speaking out against the war in Iraq
— and some are refusing to fight,’ David Goodman reports
(Mother Jones, 11 Oct). ‘[I]n 2003, the Army listed
more than 2,774 soldiers as deserters…and many observers
believe the actual number may be even higher.’ Meanwhile
the GI Rights Hotline reports that it ‘now receives between
3,000 and 4,000 calls per month from soldiers seeking a way out
of the military.’
“Oil and money”
In Britain ministers were ‘appalled at the spectacle of
[British] soldiers…interviewed on television’ calling
Blair a “liar” and stating that they were “angry
and nervous” about their redploy-ment to assist in the attack
on Fallujah (Independent, 10 Nov). Within 24 hours of
the 28 Oct broadcast the Armed Forces Minister, Adam Ingram ‘reissued
orders to troops reinforcing the message that they should not
speak to the media without prior authorisation.’
However this didn’t stop Private Craig Lowe (18) - whose
brother of Paul was killed by a suicide bomber following the redeployment
– from telling the media that his brother had died in a
war over “oil and money” amd demanding that his regiment
return home (Guardian, 6 Nov). Truth, it seems, will
out.
Action
- At least three
US soldiers are currently seeking asylum in Canada (see here).
It is crucial that they win this – both for their sake and
to keep this window open for others. Voices has produced a new
campaign postcard to help put pressure on the Canadian Government
to do the right thing (see here).
- Representatives from the US groups Military Families Speak Out
and Iraq Veterans Against the War will be speaking at the IOF
Conference on 5 Dec, and then at events in Leeds, Glasgow, Manchester
and Colchester.
- Some of the relatives of British service people have formed
a new group: Military Families
Against the War
Bush in Britain
Tony Blair ‘has
decided to confront opponents of the Iraq war head on by placing
the “war on terror” at the heart of Labour’s
campaign in the coming general election’ (Independent
on Sunday, 14 Nov) and ‘George Bush is to visit Britain
in February’ (Sunday Telegraph, 14 Nov) - apparently
as part of this campaign.
Voices plans to work with other UK groups to help give the pair
the reception they deserve. Contact the office – or see
the January newsletter – for details.
Resources
New books
Iraq: A Journey of Peace and Hope by
Peggy Gish, Herald Press, 2004. Available from voices for £10.50
incl. p&p. Reviewed by MILAN RAI.
Who among us is willing to take the same risks in making peace
that soldiers take in making war? In this book organic farmer,
grandmother, and committed Christian, Peggy Gish records her witness
for peace in Iraq, working with the Christian Peacemaker Teams,
before, during and since the invasion: threatened in her flat
by a suicide bomber; camping in a protest tent in the midst of
‘Shock and Awe’; and trying to negotiate a presence
in Fallujah with local figures. An honest, compassionate and compelling
book from an inspiring woman. Don’t miss it.
The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied
Iraq by Christian Parenti. The New Press. £12.99
‘The perfect guide through occupied Iraq: honest, compassionate,
and pissed off’ (Naomi Klein).Rather than try to provide
a ‘sweeping analysis’ of the war, Parenti instead
gives us ‘a slice of political feeling and flavor, a snapshot
of a time and place: Iraq during the first year of US occupation.’
Here - whether he’s hanging out with US soldiers or meeting
members of the Iraqi resistance - he succeeds brilliantly. Amust-read.
Voices readers can get The Freedom for a special discounted
price of £10.99 by sending a cheque for that amount (payable
to ‘Thomson Publishing Services’) to Thomson Publishing
Services, Cheriton House, North Way, SP10 5BE and quoting reference
IOC-1.
New postcards
Voices has produced two new campaign postcards (see this page
and p2): Stop the Killing in Iraq (to Blair) and Support
the troops: give them asylum. Both postcards are available
from the office and are free (though donations are welcome). Ideal
for stalls, mailings etc…
New DVD
The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror
(90 mins). The latest documentary from the makers of Hidden
Wars of Desert Storm, The Oil Factor examines both the human costs
and the geo-strategic imperatives behind George Bush’s “war-on-terror.”
With Zbigniew Brzezinski, Noam Chomsky, the director of the Project
for the New American Century Director amongst others. Available
shortly on DVD from voices for £15 (incl. p&p) - back
page.
Web-sites
Dahr Jamail’s Iraq Dispatches
- http://dahrjamailiraq.com/
- indispensable on-the-ground reports from independent US journalist.
See p. 3 for recent samples.
IraqAnalysis.org – www.iraqanalysis.org
- new website set up by former members of the Campaign Against
Sanctions on Iraq (CASI). Currently contains excellent briefings
on the denial of water to Iraqi cities by coalition forces and
the British Government’s response to the Lancet report
Military Families Against the War -
www.mfaw.org.uk - website
of a new group set up by relatives and loved ones of members of
the British Armed Services. ‘[O]pposed to the continuing
involvement of UK soldiers in a war…based on lies.’
|
