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.

Sunday, 5 July 2009

Oil, again

Both management and union in Iraq's Southern Oil Company oppose the current sell-off of Iraq's national wealth to western corporations:

The scramble for Iraq's 'sweet oil'
Al-Jazeera reports (June 30th): With proven oil reserves of around 112 billion barrels and up to another 150 billion barrels of probable reserves, Iraq is the greatest untapped prize for international oil companies.
The companies want a long-term share of the oil they produce under a Production Sharing Agreement, which allows them to book reserves in advance and tell the market exactly how much oil they expect to produce.
This is exactly the type of contract that Iraqis in the oil industry are opposed to. Fayad al-Nema, general manager of Iraq's South Oil Company, has written to Hussein al-Shahristani, the Iraqi oil minister, outlining his company's objections.
"We in the South Oil Company, that is all of its leadership, reject the first bidding round because it is against the interests of Iraq's oil industry."
Oil workers' unions in Iraq have also spoken out against the contracts. Hassan Joumah, president of the Federation of Iraqi Oil Workers Union, says: "Unfortunately, there are many problems with the first round of the allocation of Iraq's oil contracts, which have given huge advantages to the foreign companies to invest in Iraq's oil.
"Giving such returns to foreign companies will put Iraq's economy in the hands of foreign companies."

For the full article:
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/06/20096288505111580.html
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1 comment:

tonyfrompenge said...

Shame the oil contracts have left the spotlight. The oil companies can be expected to be looking to plunder the Iraqi peoples' oil so long as there the oil is in the ground and so long as there is a corrupt government depending for its existence on US patronage.

30 July 2009 at 11:39

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