Fwd: [group_talk] Subject: Fwd: [prime] Letter from Baghdad

thought that might be interesting to some... Seb

>From: Sebastian Olma

>To: osebastian@hotmail.com

>Subject: Fwd: [group_talk] Subject: Fwd: [prime] Letter from Baghdad

>Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 15:53:32 +0000 (GMT)

>----- Forwarded message from Shane Brighton -----

>Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 10:46:45 -0000

>From: Shane Brighton

>Reply-To: group_talk@yahoogroups.com

>Subject: [group_talk] Subject: Fwd: [prime] Letter from Baghdad

>To: group_talk@yahoogroups.com

> >LETTER FROM BAGHDAD

> >

> >Dear Friends,

> >

> > From 3rd- 8th January 2003 a group of NGO representatives and former UN

> > officials was able to meet with cabinet ministers in Baghdad including

> > Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, Foreign Minister Nagi Sabri and Oil

> > Minister Amer Mohammed Rashid, as well as to talk with doctors, teachers

> > and scientists. We had the opportunity to meet ordinary Iraqis and visit

> > sites recently inspected for weapons of mass destruction. The aim was to

> > contribute to efforts to prevent war and to gather information not

> > available in the western press, particularly with regard to the human

> > situation.

> >Attached is a brief summary of a very intense series of visits, as well as

> >suggestions responding to the frequent question asked by citizens of

> >western countries "What can we do to help prevent war?"

> >Please circulate these documents as widely as possible, asking NGOs and

> >individuals to act quickly on the practical suggestions offered. Your

> >help will be very valuable.

> >With warm wishes,

> >from

> >Margarita Papandreou, Honorary President, KEDE (Center for Research and

> >Action on Peace), former First Lady of Greece

> >Scilla Elworthy, Director, Oxford Research Group, UK

> >Denis Halliday, former Assistant Secretary-General of the UN and UN

> >Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Iraq

> >Christian Harleman, the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future

> >Research, Sweden

> >Jan Oberg, Director, the Transnational Foundation, Sweden

> >Zeynep Oral, Winpeace and Peace Initiative, Turkey

> >Omaima Rawas, peace activist and Vice President of the Syrian Arabic

> >League, Syria

> >Fotini Sianou, President, Women's Committee, European Trade Union

> >Confederation

> >

> >**********************

> >

> >NEWS FROM BAGHDAD - a visit to Iraq 3rd - 8th January 2003

> >including meetings with Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, Foreign Minister

> >Nagi Sabri and Oil Minister Amer Mohammed Rashid, as well as conversations

> >with ordinary Iraqis in the street and visits to sites.

> >

> >1. Attitudes of Iraqis today. We experienced a mixture of fatalism, faith

> >and defiance in the El-zahrawi tearoom. Watching Saddam Hussein's Army Day

> >speech on television, we talked with people at random, many of whom spoke

> >English. They said that twice now world opinion has predicted that Iraq

> >would collapse - after the Gulf War in 1991, and in 1998 when 350 cruise

> >missiles hit the country - and once again they will survive. Yes, their

> >children are afraid. Yes, the teenagers do not know if it is worth

> >studying seriously or not. No, they will not go to the shelters. They do

> >not talk so much of US or UK aggression but rather of Bush and Blair. They

> >do not resent the people of the countries about to bomb them, nor the

> >civilizations, but the leaders. In the words of Dr. Hoda Ammash "People

> >here bear every respect for western people and western civilization. We

> >respect your technological advancement, and your values. We know that

> >westerners are being given the opportunity to learn about Arabic

> >civilizations. Yet hatred is being manufactured, by some, to engineer a

> >clash of civilizations."

> >

> >2. Food reserves. Iraqi households have been given three months' (and now

> >a further two months') food rations in order to get it out of the main

> >storage sites to prevent it being bombed. The food distribution programme,

> >according to Denis Halliday (former Assistant Secretary-General of the

> >United Nations and UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Iraq (1997-98), is one

> >of the most efficient in history, involving 49,000 food distribution

> >agents and minimizing corruption through a system whereby if 100 people

> >complain about an agent, he or she is removed. Iraqis are also

> >stock-piling water but have no suitable large containers. People with

> >gardens are being asked to dig wells.

> >Under the UN Oil-for-Food Programme only about half the oil revenues can

> >be used for buying food and other necessities for the population of the

> >centre and South of the country; the rest being used for compensation to

> >Kuwait and the costs of the UN programme including the UNMOVIC weapons

> >inspections.

> >Halliday concludes: " The twelve year sanctions regime has become a weapon

> >of mass destruction, built on the massive damage to civilian

> >infrastructure by US bombing and resulting in the deaths of over one

> >million people since 1991, over half of whom are children."

> >According to UNICEF 25% of Iraqi babies are born weighing 2kgs or less, a

> >key indicator of famine. One million children under 5 suffer acute or

> >chronic malnutrition.

> >

> >3. Shelters. Everyone we spoke to said they would not use the 34 shelters

> >provided for civilians in Baghdad because of the 1991 bombing of Al-Amarya

> >shelter when 408 out of 422 women and children in the shelter were burned

> >to death.

> >

> >4. Weapons Inspectors. Dr. Sami Al-Araji, a nuclear engineer and Director

> >General of Planning at the Ministry of Industry, is facilitating the work

> >of the UNMOVIC inspectors. Everywhere we went there was a remarkable

> >willingness to co-operate with the inspections, but patience is being

> >tested. During our visit there was a routine inspection near the

> >University of Baghdad where there are 6 science centres. The inspectors

> >wanted to investigate one of these, but froze the entire complex meaning

> >that nearly 3,000 people could not move for six hours, even though their

> >place of work was not under inspection. This meant that toddlers were left

> >uncollected at nursery schools. Not even the Iraqi Ambassador to the UN,

> >there for a visit, was allowed to leave.

> >A professor of microbiology at the University of Baghdad told us that

> >during 1991-98 inspectors re-examined the university every three weeks,

> >searching minutely. "They enter exam halls where students are doing their

> >finals and search under their chairs." Iraqi people thought the

> >inspections would last 2-3 years, and then they could go back to normal

> >life. The inspections are now into their 12th year, are more intense than

> >ever, and there is no end in sight.

> >We visited the al-Dawrah Foot and Mouth Vaccine Institute which was high

> >on the list in the UK Government dossier (published September 2002) of

> >biological weapons sites. Since 1994 the site has been inspected 60 times,

> >it has been closed since 1995, when all the equipment was destroyed or

> >removed and there were cameras everywhere connected to the former UNSCOM

> >Monitoring Centre in Baghdad. The place was wrecked.

> >

> >5. Civil and political rights. Since Oct 2002, laws and regulations have

> >been or are being revised as follows:

> >· Amendments to the constitution to allow for a multi-party system.

> >· Abolition of special 'security violations' courts which had no rights of

> >appeal

> >· Abolition of laws requiring cutting off hands of thieves

> >· Amnesty for political prisoners

> >· Exiles not linked to intelligence services may now return to Iraq with

> >the right to criticise the government

> >· Reduction of fee for exit visa from Iraq from $200 to $10.

> >

> >6. Oil. Current Iraqi production is approx 3 million barrels per day

> >(current world production approx 77 million) but it has the second largest

> >reserves in the world. If controls were lifted, and with infrastructure

> >investment, with its immense reserves of easily extractable oil Iraq has

> >the potential to supply 10% of the world's oil needs, and to continue to

> >do so for at least a century (since less than 1% of reserves are being

> >used up each year). Iraqis are very conscious of the energy needs of the

> >western economies - the US has to import 60% of its oil needs - and know

> >that the main reason for military invasion is to gain control of its vast

> >reserves of oil. Iraqi ministers fear that if the US were to control

> >Iraq's oil production, it would manipulate the economies not only of the

> >Far East, but also of Europe. Iraq takes a long-term view, wants a stable

> >oil price, and would like to adopt normal trading relations rather than be

> >subject to crises, threats and manipulation.

> >

> >7. Depleted Uranium (DU). Water-borne and air-borne dust from DU shells,

> >used by the US and the UK in the 1991 Gulf war, is spreading over vast

> >areas of Iraq but the government has no way of detecting the direction of

> >the spread because airborne radiation sensing equipment is prohibited.

> >People are developing cancers by consuming meat and milk from animals

> >grazing in polluted areas. Cancers of all kinds are increasing

> >dramatically in Iraq particularly amongst women with breast cancer and

> >leukaemia. Members of our delegation have visited hospitals in Iraq since

> >1991 and observed that current conditions in the hospitals have worsened.

> >Equipment needed for treatment lies idle because the computerized controls

> >have been removed due to sanctions. There is one nurse for every 16 beds

> >where previously there was one for every two beds. Every child has a

> >mother or grandmother giving full time care. Omar, three years old has a

> >plastino blastoma*, which attacks kidneys and then destroys the brain and

> >nervous system: his head is enlarged to twice normal size, his face

> >swollen unrecognizably out of shape and his eyes blind. His mother sits

> >with him like a madonna, waiting for her child to die. Tiny Aia

> >('Miracle') was born with a second head, a brain sack attached to the back

> >of her own head, a condition known as meningoceal* and not seen in Iraq

> >before the mid-1990s. Dr. Ahmed Fadeh of the Baghdad Children's Hospital

> >told me there are unlimited cases he simply can't treat because his

> >equipment is worn out or lacks spares, and he has not got the drugs or

> >even the suture thread that he needs because of sanctions.

> >*this was told to us phonetically in a hurry, we are not sure of the

> >correct spelling

> >

> >8. Implications for the future. This visit was a shock treatment in

> >learning what it feels like to be an Iraqi. This is an ancient people with

> >a civilization 7000 years old (Iraqis point out that the United States is

> >barely 300 years old), an economy that until the 1980s was a model for the

> >entire Middle East, and with a free health service that was ahead of the

> >National Health Service in the UK. The streets are now rubble-strewn, most

> >of the middle class have left, and people are selling their household

> >goods on street corners in order to survive. The currency has devalued

> >6000 (six thousand) % in 20 years; in 1981 one dinar bought three US

> >dollars, today one US dollar buys about 2000 dinars. To pay a modest hotel

> >bill for 6 days, you need a pile of dinar notes two meters high. Twelve

> >years of sanctions, which were intended to make the Iraqi people revolt

> >against their leadership, have had the opposite effect giving Saddam

> >Hussein total control over his people through food rationing. Sanctions

> >have simply disabled Iraqi people through hunger and the wholesale

> >disintegration of their infrastructure. Rather than rebel against Saddam

> >Hussein, they feel defiance towards Bush and Blair, that their leader can

> >constantly reinforce, since their sense of honour is continuously

> >provoked. The humiliation is very deep and very dangerous. In these

> >circumstances a war and subsequent occupation of Iraq will no doubt fuel

> >the fires of hatred and terror, and consequently the risk of attacks on

> >the West.

> >

> >For more information see websites: www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk

> >www.transnational.org

> >

> >WHAT YOU CAN DO

> >Time is short. The UNMOVIC inspectors are due to report on 27th January

> >2003. Military preparations indicate that an attack may begin in early

> >February. A pre-emptive attack will be a clear-cut violation of the UN

> >Charter and international law. Medical and public health experts in the

> >UK estimate that between 48,000 and 260,000 civilians could be killed in

> >the first 3 months of conflict, and that if WMD are

> >used, there could be up to 4 million dead.

> >What can be done to move towards a genuine solution of this conflict other

> >than war and occupation?

> >

> >1.The free press and NGOs must speedily step up their analysis and

> >reporting to challenge disinformation about the realities in Iraq. There

> >is still not enough serious open public debate. Please distribute this

> >report to all your media contacts.

> >

> >2. Whenever you hear a news broadcast on Iraq which does not mention

> >something about ordinary people, call them to ask for some human interest

> >stories. Iraq is not one man, it is 26 million fellow citizens. They have

> >points of views, hopes and fears like all of us.

> >

> >3. The European Union has a substantial potential role to play. A

> >consistent well-structured mediation process could be offered, either

> >through key Arab states, or in the form of a meeting between the most

> >senior representatives of the United States and of Iraq to 'explore

> >whether all avenues short of war have been exhausted'. This meeting would

> >need to be announced before 27th January, perhaps to take place

> >mid-February. It would need to take place in a very safe environment and

> >employ state-of-the-art conflict resolution techniques. These moves could

> >be supported by France and by Germany in their chairmanship of the UN

> >Security Council in January and February 2003 respectively. Urge your EU

> >government to support such an initiative, and copy your letter to Prime

> >Minister Costas Simitis of Greece, 15 Vassilissis Sofias Avenue, 10674

> >Athens, mail@primeminister.gr which has the current presidency of the

> >European Union.

> >

> >4. If you are yourself willing, go to Baghdad to become part of the

> >Civilian Protection that has already begun with contingents from Spain,

> >the US and Austria. 5000 people are needed to stay at civilian sites such

> >as electricity, water and telecommunications facilities to try to prevent

> >them being bombed. Individuals taking this course of action should be

> >aware of the serious risks involved. Contact either Voices in the

> >Wilderness www.nonviolence.org or www.iraqpeaceteam.org or Dr. Al-Hashimi,

> >President of the Iraqi Organisation for Friendship, Peace and Solidarity

> >in Baghdad, Silm@uruklink.net Fax: + 964 1 537 2933 or + 964 1 8853298.

> >

> >5. Call your foreign office to ask it you have an embassy in Baghdad. Many

> >governments do not have any representation and thus cannot collect first

> >hand facts and impressions on which to base an independent analysis.

> >Neither Britain nor the US has an embassy in Baghdad, and communications

> >have to go through the Polish embassy.

> >

> >6. Ask your parliamentary committee for foreign affairs whether they have

> >visited Iraq to see for themselves and if not, why not. Ask them to talk

> >to Iraqi people at all levels.

> >

> >7. Make it known that the 12-year sanctions regime has had the opposite

> >effect to that intended; it has put Saddam Hussein in total control of the

> >Iraqi people, through the rationing programme. He can withdraw food from

> >any person or group, and they will starve.

> >

> >8. Prime ministers and presidents worldwide need to understand the

> >strength and urgency of public opposition to this proposed attack, so that

> >they will actively support mediation rather than allowing themselves to be

> >bribed or bullied into supporting an attack. See George Monbiot's article

> >'Act now against war'

> >http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,869807,00.html for ideas on

> >how to get the message across, through non-violent civil disobedience. He

> >suggests disrupting the speeches of ministers, blocking the roads down

> >which they must travel, blockading important public buildings, or airports

> >from which troops take off.

> >

> >'What comes to pass does so not so much because a few people want it to

> >happen, as because citizens abdicate their responsibility and let things

> >be.' Gramscii

>Marilyn B. Young

>Professor, History, NYU

>Director, International Center for Advanced Studies

>Project on the Cold War as Global Conflict

>Tel: (212) 998-3627

>Fax: (212) 995-4546

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>----- End forwarded message -----

>********************

>Sebastian Olma

>Centre for Cultural Studies

>Goldsmiths College

>New Cross

>London SE14 6NW

>UK