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A call for events to mark the 1st anniversary of the US'
devastating assault on Fallujah in November 2004, to increase
awareness about the realities of the occupation and to demand:
- Compensation for the victims
- War crimes prosecutions for those responsible
- An end to the occupation
Sponsored
by Brent Stop the War, Iraq Occupation Focus, Justice Not Vengeance,
Sutton for Peace and Justice & Voices in the Wilderness UK.
E-mail here if your group
would like to add its name as a sponsor.
GET INVOLVED:
- organise a local screening of the film ‘Testimonies from
Fallujah’
- host an event for the national speaking tour
- get your group to sponsor the month
- order an information pack
See below
for more info.
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BACKGROUND
On 8 Nov 2004, after more than two months of aerial attacks, the
US began its second major assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah,
killing “at least 800 civilians” (estimate by high-ranking
Red Cross Official, Inter Press Service, 16 Nov). UK
forces played an active support role in the attack, with hundreds
of troops redeployed from Southern Iraq to form part of a “ring
of steel” around the city (Independent, 22 Oct)
COMPENSATE
THE VICTIMS
More than 200,000 Iraqis fled the Nov assault, and many of these
refugees were forced to spend the winter struggling to find food,
shelter and medical provision in near-freezing temperatures.
Today, only about a third of the more than 200,000 refugees from
the assault – which, according to the US State Dept, rendered
50% of the Fallujah’s housing uninhabitable or “severely
damaged” (FT, 14 Apr) – have returned and
those that have now live under an Orwellian regime of curfews,
iris scans and intimidation (Washington Post, 14, 19 Apr).
The victims of last year’s assault must receive
housing and compensation.
WAR
CRIMES
There is ample evidence that serious war crimes were committed
in the attack on Fallujah: 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); a health centre was bombed
killing 60 patients and support staff (The Nation, 13
Dec); 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 in the offensive (Inter Press Service,
16 Nov).
Justice demands that those responsible for the assault
– primarily, Bush & Blair – face prosecution for
these crimes.
NOT
JUST FALLUJAH: THE WAR CONTINUES
Though little-reported, the war is still very much in progress.
Recent US military offensives in Ramadi, Baghdadi, Hit, Haditha,
Mosul, Qaim and elsewhere, have killed scores of civilians and
created thousands more refugees. On 28 June 2005 Iraq's deputy
health minister ‘warn[ed] of starvation among the refugees
who fled and continue to flee al-Qaim and surrounding areas to
avoid massive U.S. military operations’, claiming that U.S.
and Iraqi forces had banned ambulances and humanitarian aid from
entering Qaim itself (United Press International).
According to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh –
who broke the Abu Ghraib torture story last year – the current
US strategy is ‘to go into the various major cities in the
Sunni heartland … [and] make the people … more afraid
of the [Americans and their proxy forces] than they are of the
resistance’ (DemocracyNow.org, 11 May). Indeed,
‘[m]ass detentions and indiscriminate torture seem to be
the main tools deployed to crush the insurgency’ (Financial
Times, 29 Jun).
END
THE OCCUPATION: BRING THE TROOPS HOME
Sixty percent of Britons want to see the withdrawal of British
forces by the end of this year (Independent, 26 Apr).
Likewise, a Jan 2005 poll found 69% of Iraqi Shiites (who form
roughly sixty percent of Iraq’s population) and 82% of Sunni
Arabs favoured US withdrawal “either immediately or after
an elected government is in place.” Since then one election
has taken place and a second, to elect a “permanent”
Government, is scheduled for December. Nonetheless the UK Foreign
Secretary has stated only that US/UK forces are ‘likely
to be completely out of the country within five years’ (Telegraph,
14 April) and the reality is that the US has no plans to leave.
UK participation in - and support for - the ongoing military occupation
of Iraq must be terminated.
A
CALL FOR ACTION
This November’s anniversary is therefore a chance for the
peace and anti-war movements to use the tragic post-invasion history
of Fallujah to educate the general public about the realities
of the occupation, and to harness the British public’s desire
to see British troops withdrawn from Iraq by the end of the year.
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FOUR SUGGESTIONS FOR WHAT
YOU CAN DO:
-
Organise a local screening of the film ‘Testimonies from
Fallujah’
Created in Iraq by Hamodi Jasim and brought to the world by independent
US journalist Dahr Jamail, this 33 min film contains photos and
footage from last November’s assault, as well as interviews
with Iraqi survivors and refugees. DVD’s of the film, playable
on computer or compatible (NTSC Region 1) format can be ordered
from Voices for non-profit screenings, price £10 incl. p&p.
Cheques should be made payable to "Voices in the Wilderness
UK" and mailed to Voices UK, 5 Caledonian Rd, London N1 9DX.
Copies should be available from mid-September.
Rahul Mahajan
- Organise an event for the national
speaking tour
Voices is hosting an speaking tour with US author and activist
Rahul Mahajan - who was in Fallujah during the April 2004 siege
of the city, serves on the Administrative Committee of US anti-war
coalition United for Peace and Justice, and maintains the excellent
analytical web-log Empire Notes - during the last weeks in November.
Contact Voices (voices@voicesuk.org or 0845 458 2564) if you would
like to host an event with Rahul.
-
Get your group to sponsor the “Remember Fallujah”
call.
E-mail Voices.
-
Order an information action pack
Voices is compiling a “Remember Fallujah” info. pack
in conjunction with JNV (www.j-n-v.org),
copies of which will be available from October. Contact Voices.
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Voices
From Occupied Iraq: An International Teach-In
10am
- 5pm, University of London Union, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HY.
Organised by Iraq
Occupation Focus.
With
speakers: Gilbert Achcar, Iraqi human rights activist Ismael Dawood,
Jeremy Dear, Rahul Mahajan, Kamil Mahdi, Sami Ramadani, Haifa
Zangana, and a representative from the Iraqi General Union of
Oil Employees (GUOE).
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Links
to more info. re. Fallujah
- JNV's briefing After
Fallujah (April 2003)
- JNV's briefing Onslaught:
the attack on Fallujah (November 2004)
- JNV's briefing Turning
Point Fallujah (April 2005)
- Voices UK's briefing Fallujah
& Beyond (May 2004)
- Fallujah
from Voices newsletter #34 (May/June 2004)
- Killing
Civilians from Voices newsletter #35 (August / September
2004)
-
'A gentleman's war' from Voices newsletter #37(Dec 2004
/ Jan 2005)
- Fallujah:
a dead city from Voices newsletter #39 (Feb/ Mar 2005)
- Fallujah
update from Voices newsletter #41 (Jun / Jul 2005)
- UK activist Jo Wilding's eyewitness
account of the April 2004 siege
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