We call on those states responsible for the invasion and occupation of Iraq to terminate their illegal and immoral war, and express our solidarity with the Iraqi people in their struggle for peace, justice and self-determination.

In particular, we demand:

  1. An immediate end to the US and UK-led occupation of Iraq;
  2. Urgent action to fully address the current humanitarian crises facing Iraq’s people, including help for the more than three million refugees and displaced persons;
  3. An end to all foreign interference in Iraq's affairs, including its oil industry, so that Iraqis can exercise their right to self-determination;
  4. Compensation and reparations from those countries responsible for war and sanctions on Iraq;
  5. Prosecution of all those responsible for war crimes, human rights abuses, and the theft of Iraq's resources.

We demand justice for Iraq.

This statement was adopted by the Justice for Iraq conference in London on 19th July 2008. We plan to publish this more widely in future. If you would like to add your name to the list of supporters please contact us.

Saturday, 3 April 2010

Interesting comment in The Guardian

Iraq's new ruling elite show contempt for voters

Toby Dodge writes in The Guardian (March 29th): Those pointing to the election results as proof that Iraq has emerged from its post-invasion turmoil should take a lesson from the pages of recent history. The architects of the invasion, George Bush and Tony Blair, trumpeted the 2005 elections as a watershed moment that justified their decision to invade. Instead, those elections and the parties they empowered played a major role in driving Iraq into a destructive civil war.

The first indication of problems arose in January, when the justice and accountability commission – the organisation charged with pursuing the de-Ba'athification process set in train by the Americans in 2003 – issued edicts seeking to ban 511 individual candidates and 14 party lists from the elections. On the eve of the vote the commission banned a further 50 candidates. Meanwhile, Ali Faisal al-Lami, the head of the justice and accountability commission, also ran as a parliamentary candidate, in a blatant conflict of interest indicative of a system where governmental institutions have been colonised by political parties and run as private fiefdoms.

The behaviour of both Allawi and Maliki during the count indicates their refusal to be bound rules that do not benefit them. When the count looked like it was going to favour Maliki, Allawi's organisation lodged a number of complaints alleging widespread fraud. But as the number of votes counted swung against Maliki, Allawi quickly changed his stance, saying: "The Iraqi people have honoured the Iraqiya list and chosen it to be the basis of forming the new government." Maliki also dramatically changed his opinion. "No way we will accept the results," he bluntly stated. Instead he called for a recount in order to prevent a "return to violence". If anyone failed to detect the sinister threat at the heart of his statement, he issued it in his role as head of the country's armed forces.


More at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/29/iraq-elite-contempt-voters

Further worrying trends:

In Iraq, newly elected lawmaker target of arrest warrant

LA Times reports (April 1st): A recently elected parliament member was in hiding after the Iraqi security forces raided his home this week on a warrant connected with a bombing case that had been settled in 2008 through a tribal mediation process.

The attempted arrest of Sheik Qais Jabouri, who had worked closely with the Iraqi government on sectarian reconciliation issues, has elicited charges from the secular Iraqiya election slate, on which he was a candidate, that Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is carrying out politically motivated arrests to stay in power after his own Shiite Muslim-led slate finished a close second in national elections March 7.

The arrest attempt was among a series of raids directed against Iraqiya candidates in Baghdad and Diyala provinces. One candidate, Najim Harbi, was taken into custody before the national vote, but he was elected anyway while being held in an undisclosed location. Another elected Iraqiya lawmaker from Jabouri's district, Madaen, southeast of Baghdad, has also gone into hiding after receiving warnings from contacts in the Iraqi security forces that a raid on his home was imminent.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/africa/la-fg-iraq-accused2-2010apr02,0,4400164.story

Iraq panel to bar 6 lawmakers from taking office

LA Times reports (March 30th): An Iraqi government commission said that it would bar six newly elected parliament members from office, accusing them of having been members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.

The move, if upheld by a panel of judges, would take away at least two seats from the secular Iraqiya list, currently the largest bloc in the upcoming parliament, and risk tainting the election results in the eyes of the many minority Sunni Arabs who voted for the slate.

If the candidates are banned, it could rob the Iraqiya bloc of its plurality in the new 325-member parliament.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq-debaath30-2010mar30,0,2503140.story


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