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.

Tuesday 28 December 2010

New mass grave

Post-U.S. invasion mass grave found in Iraq’s Mosul includes corpses of small children

Azzaman report (December 21st): Iraqi troops have uncovered a mass grave where the bodies of 11 Iraqis were buried among them small children.

The victims were murdered and buried in the grave, close to a neighborhood in northern city of Mosul, said Major Iamd-el-deen Abdulkarim.


He said those buried in the grave were victims of violence which swept Mosul and the rest of Iraq in the aftermath of the 2003-U.S. invasion.


Sunday 19 December 2010

Shoe thrower on book signing tour

Iraqi shoe thrower says he is suing Iraq's prime minister

AP report (December 14th): The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at formerPresident George W. Bush said Tuesday he is suing Iraq's prime minister for his detention and alleged torture during the nine months he spent in custody.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi spoke during the signing in Beirut of his first book, entitled "The Last Salute to President Bush."

Al-Zeidi was arrested and convicted of assault. He spent nine months in prison, including three in solitary confinement. He toldThe Associated Press Tuesday that he was beaten and electrocuted for three days by interrogators, some of them related to al-Maliki.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-ml-iraq-shoe-thrower,0,4052243.story

Looking forward to the New Year?

Victor, Meet Spoils: Weaponeers Peddle Wares to Iraqi Cops

Danger Room reports (December 17th): Next year’s supposed to be the big year in Iraq: the final departure of U.S. troops. But the Iraqi Ministry of Interior wants you to know that it has a lot of business opportunities available long after that for enterprising defense corporations.
Come by the Crown Plaza Hotel near National Airport just outside of Washington, D.C. on March 3 and 4, because that’s when the Iraq Homeland and Border Control Conference will kick off. Sponsored by a business-expo firm called New Fields, which has hosted Iraqi defense officials for similar conferences, the event bills itself as a rare chance to “brief key Iraqi homeland and border control officials and decision maker [sic] about your equipments and services,” according to a typo-prone brochure for the event 
It’s not so surprising that the Iraqi Interior Ministry is looking for a few good American contractors. The remaining 50,000 U.S. troops may be on the way out, but Iraq still doesn’t have a developed air force — or control of its own air space.

Amnesty alert

37 Iraqis at risk of imminent execution

Amnesty International report (December 17th): Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim said in an interview that Iraq will execute 37 people who have exhausted all legal remedies and their death sentences have been approved by the Presidential Council. He also said that Iraq has executed 257 people, including six women, since 2005. Last Monday Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said that 835 people are presently on death row in Iraq.
Amnesty International and the United Nations have repeatedly called on Iraq to abolish the death penalty, to give fair trials to prisoners, and to investigate allegations of torture.

Tuesday 14 December 2010

ICRC: civilians still suffering undue hardship

30-11-2010 Operational Update

Over the past year, the lives of many Iraqi civilians have not changed for the better. Civilians continue to carry the heaviest burden amid the widespread violence. They are still the main victims of the indiscriminate attacks and mass explosions that have taken place in the governorates of Baghdad, Ninewa, Diyala, Anbar, Najaf, Kerbala and Basra, and that have left, on average, hundreds of people wounded or dead each month this year.


"Indiscriminate attacks against civilians inflict tremendous suffering. They are clearly unacceptable. They are contrary to international humanitarian law and to the most basic principles of humanity," said Magne Barth, head of the ICRC delegation in Iraq. "Civilians must be protected against violence, as must be medical personnel and facilities".

The humanitarian situation in Iraq remains serious. Iraqis are filled with anxiety and uncertainty about what the future holds. Vulnerable people, such as women heading households, disabled people and detainees, continue to depend to some extent on outside help to meet basic needs.
 

Human Rights reports/apeals

Qusay ‘Abdel-Razaq Zabib, who is married with two children, was a police officer in the village of ‘Uwaynat, near Tikrit, 140 km northwest of Baghdad, at the time of his arrest by US forces in July 2008.. He was suspected of collaborating with armed groups opposed to the Iraqi government and the presence of US forces in Iraq.
AI: Urgent action DETAINED former police officer AT SERIOUS RISK

Amnesty International today strongly condemned a call by the Iraqi Interior Minister for the swift execution of 39 alleged al-Qai’da members as they were paraded before journalists, handcuffed and clad in orange jumpsuits.

Iraqi Interior Minister condemned for demanding execution of al-Qai’da suspects

(Reuters)The United Nations criticised an Iraqi official on Friday for calling for a group of prisoners to be executed before they have gone to trial, saying that such remarks undermined Iraq's judicial process.
Last week, Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said that 39 al Qaeda militants arrested by security forces should be executed without delay.

Iraq should ensure fair trials for detainees - U.N.

Francesco Motta, head of the United Nations Human Rights office in Iraq, said such statements undermined justice.Amnesty International today called on all states to commit themselves to end enforced disappearances, following news that a landmark treaty aimed at preventing the practice will come into effect.

The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (Disappearances Convention) will enter into force on 23 December, after Iraq on Wednesday became the 20th country to ratify it.
Landmark enforced disappearances convention to enter into force
 
Google translation :Dozens of people attended a protest with regards to Missing persons from the civil war in Kurdistan, on Thursday 9th Dec, a demonstration in fron...t of the United Nations headquarters in Arbil, demanding an international organization by putting pressure on the Kurdish authorities to reveal the fates of their children.



The organizer of the demonstration, Kamal Ahmed told (Voices of Iraq) "We have lost our children in the civil war between the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan 15 years ago where they were detained by the two parties, has asked the two parties more than once reveal the fate of our children, Release them if they are alive or extradite their bodies if they are dead".


The civil war raged in Kurdistan between the two main parties KDP, led by regional president Massoud Barzani and President Jalal Talabani for a period of four years (1994 - 1998), which killed thousands of Kurds disappeared fate of thousands of others where he was the Democratic administration of Arbil (Erbil and Dohuk), and  (Sulaymaniyah and the Ckramaan) under the authority of the National Union, and each party was arrested dozens of supporters of the other Party during the war years did not know the fate of those still missing.


For his part, Baber Ali, the father of one of the missing, told (Voices of Iraq) that "military force arrested my son 14 years ago in the city of Sulaimaniya, we do not know his fate until now we do not know if he is alive or not."

أهالي مفقودين بالحرب الأهلية بكردستان يطالبون الأمم المتحدة بالضغط على السلطات الكردية لكشف مصائر ابنائهم

7/12/2010 AI- The wife of a British man held without charge in Iraq for a year is calling on the UK government to step up its efforts to secure the release of her husband.
Ramze Shihab Ahmed, a 68-year-old dual Iraqi-UK citizen who has lived in the UK since 2002, was arrested by security officials in a relative’s house in the city of Mosul on 7 December 2009.
Ahmed, who had travelled to Iraq to try to secure the release of his detained son ‘Omar, was first held in total secrecy for nearly four months before being able to phone his wife in London. He has told his wife of how he was tortured - including with electric shocks to his genitals and suffocation by plastic bags.
Fresh appeal for UK man held for year without charge in Iraq


Sunday 12 December 2010

Blog extract

The Streets of Baghdad

Asrar Anwarn blogs (December 10th): In Baghdad a ten minute journey turns into an hour long journey waiting at checkpoints.

The streets of Baghdad are filled with stories of the fallen and the forgotten. The brother kidnapped and tortured, his family unaware of his whereabouts. The uncle that was assassinated for his name. The mother who died giving birth to a baby born with deformities, a baby barely able to breathe and dies soon after its mother. The father whose car blew up on his way to work, his family left to pick up the pieces. The sister who was kidnapped, raped, and left to rot in an old cell. The boy who went to buy some groceries but never returned. The little girl in the yellow dress, shot dead by occupation forces driving by for no reason at all. Every person you encounter in Iraq will have a story of a fallen family member or a forgotten friend.

Read more here:


More on displacement

Displaced women still struggle for survival

IRIN reports (December 7th): Displaced Iraqi female-headed families who have returned home are still experiencing major livelihood challenges, says the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

An IOM survey of 1,355 female-headed displaced families who have returned to their places of origin found that 74 percent are struggling to secure adequate nutrition for their families.

Delays in receiving subsidized government food rations or lack of some food items in the rations force women to buy food with whatever money they have, adding to their struggle, the report, issued on 3 December, states.


No safe haven for displaced Iraqis

The Electronic Intifad reports (7th December): More than seven years after the United States and United Kingdom-led invasion of Iraq, millions of displaced Iraqis have nowhere to go. For the overwhelming majority of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), displacement is not a one-off trauma. Rather, it is a continuous state of flight for most uprooted Iraqis, who the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates to number 1,785,212 refugees and 1,552,003 IDPs (both figures as of January 2010).

Among the Iraqis who were forced to flee their homes is a widow and mother of two, Umm Haitham, who spoke to The Electronic Intifada on condition that her real name not be revealed. "We don't know where to go. We have nowhere to go," Umm Haitham said, as her voice trembled over the phone.

Umm Haitham and her two children, both in their twenties, have moved three times in the past two years. To begin with, because of unbearable levels of violence they left their home in Baghdad and fled to Amman, hoping to find greater security in neighboring Jordan

So no change, then

US warplanes bomb central Iraq

Military World reports (December 9th): US fighter jets have reportedly pounded a region in Iraq's central governorate of Babil months after Washington declared an end to combat operations in Iraq late August.

Iraqi security sources said that US warplanes shelled a region lying north of the provincial capital of Hilla, Aswat al-Iraq news agency reported. 

Sunday 5 December 2010

A wikileaks story you may have missed

Collusion with the United States by the Spanish Government over death in Baghdad

Typically Spanish reports (November 30th): The family of the Telecinco TV cameraman, José Couso, who was killed by US fire on April 8 2003, say that following the revelations in the Wikileaks papers which show the United States put pressure on Spain to close the court case brought by the family in the National Court in Madrid, they may start new legal action.

The leaked documents show that the United States Embassy in Madrid put pressure on the Spanish Government over the court cases opened in Madrid against the soldiers implicated in the Couso death, and the allegations of torture at Guantanamo Bay.

The then United States ambassador, Eduardo Aguirre, is revealed to have threatened breaking bilateral relations with Spain on several occasions, and said on one occasion ‘My patience is running out’.
http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_28096.shtml

Saturday 4 December 2010

Haifa Zangana's analysis at LSE 26th Nov 2010

Haifa Zangana at London LSE part 1

Haifa Zangana at London LSE part 2

Netanyahu: 'Significant trade' with Iraq

Leaked document reveals prime minister told US senator of 'strong but unpublicized trade' between Haifa port and Iraq via Jordan

Ronen Medzini

Published: 11.30.10, 22:57 / Israel News

Israel has significant trade relations with Iraq, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed about a year and a half ago in a meeting with US Senator Benjamin Cardin, according to a document revealed Tuesday by the WikiLeaks website.


* Click here to read document