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"END THE OCCUPATION
OF IRAQ" RALLY

[UK, London, Saturday 12th April 2003]

PART 3 OF 3

Keywords: Anti-war, peace, stop the war demonstration, Iraq, Palestine, 12-4-2003 UK London



Michel Massih

Michel Massih, Palestinian barrister:

"As we speak today, the Israeli occupation of the land of Palestine is continuing. It is an evil, beyond belief. Because unlike any other occupation its an occupation with a plan to uproot the people from their homes... "

 


USA - World's No. 1 Polluter, a reminder that the ramifications
of US global domination go far beyond Iraq



Lindsey German

 

Lindsey German, Convener of the Stop the War Coalition:

 

"When we see a six year old child shot in the head by American troops I think this truly is the new American century! It is a century of barbarism and it is a century of war.

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but when they sent rockets to hit Al-Jezeera television ands when they hit Abu-Dhabi television and when they hit the hotel containing all the foreign journalists, that was a deliberate hit by the US military on journalists in Baghdad.


Stop the War Coalition posters
eclipse the House's of Parliament

Just as the bombing of the market, which they denied, was deliberate hits by the US military on the people of Baghdad. And they did this because they don't want us to know what is going on in Baghdad. They don't want us to know that they haven't brought freedom, they've brought conquest, they've brought disaster. And this is part of what their project is all about - they want to control this country. They now have a colonial occupation. It is headed by a pro-israeli retired american general, it is backed up by an Iraqi banker who hasn't lived in the country for 45 years and who is a convicted fraudster. This is the kind of gangster regime they are going to bring to Iraq with all the misery its going to bring to the Iraqi people...


Muslims and non-Muslims unite - "Not in our name"

And now they say they are going to attack Syria, they are going to attack Iran. Our movement started with the war on Afghanistan. We said then that this is an unjust war, and remember nearly two years later Afghanistan still hasn't had an election. It is still ruled by an American puppet and by the opium dealers and by the warlords. It is a corrupt and rotten colonial regime and that is what we have got facing us now. We new this was not the first war we have to oppose and it will not be the last. We are entering a period where the US is trying to reshape the world in its image and if you care about peace and democracy and freedom and justice and social justice we have to oppose what the Americans are doing..."


Message for Blair from a British tax payer -
"Listen to us not Bush"


Outside the Prime Ministers Residence
( Downing Street starts behind the police line)


One mothers message to Tony Blair:


"Tony Blair we know you're in there, open up ..
... and stop this nasty war
its against the law...
we want you out
we want you out now...

God rest in peace our men and women
and every Iraqi man and women
and expecting mothers
God rest them in peace
Tony Blair you have blood on your hands
blood on your hands
for every man and woman
bring them back
and stop this nasty war
this is against the law

if Bush want to fight with blood on his hands
let him do it alone
we know that the Iraqi people need help
- not in this way
we know from the beginning
that the moment you start bombing
Saddam will hide and the innocent will suffer..."

 


A page headline from the Daily Mirror newspaper
reads: "Still Antiwar? Yes Bloody Right We Are"

 


Tony Blair may be hiding behind the line of police,
but even they couldn't silence the judgement of the people:

"Tony Blair - terrorist -Tony Blair murderer"

 

 


"One of these chimps is a mass killer"



Fawzia Ibrahim

Fawzia Ibrahim, Iraqi lecturer and union activist (NATFHE):

"Its a war designed as a showcase of the might of the United States in front of which all of us must kneel and ask for forgiveness. But the world said NO, and we say NO. The fact that the United States is now threatening Syria is a sign of their weakness - not of their strength. The united states remains isolated and in its isolation it lashes out..."

 


"Capitalism means War", Symbols of capitalism -
the US dollar and the US flag - burnt and defaced



George Galloway, MP

 

George Galloway, Member of British Parliament:

"Let me say that we are not going to take any lectures on patriotism from Rupert Murdoch. A man who has been a patriot of three different countries in 15 years. And we wont be silenced by the gutter snipes of the Murdoch press whether they are in the sewer with the Sun and the News Of The World or just in the gutter with the Times and the Sunday Times. And I will tell you this - we wont be silenced by the Labour party leadership either!


"Gorgeous George Galloway for Prime Minister,
Phoney Tony Blair for the war crimes court"

Mr Blair, according to the newspapers - the plans to try and throw me out of the House of Commons. It seems he wants free speech in Baghdad but not in the British Parliament. Well I hope that every single person here will write to Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street and tell him that you will not accept any moves to silence Tam Dalyell or me in the British Parliament! And I want you to promise me now that you will write that letter on Monday to Tony Blair.

... I am looking at now at a poster of that little boy Ali, lying on his hospital bed scorched and limbless, and I'm asking the British Government - is this what you meant by disarming Iraq? Cutting the limbs of its children with your high velocity weapons?


Ali Ismaeel Abbas, aged only 12, was fast asleep when an American missile obliterated his home and most of his family, leaving him orphaned, badly burned and missing both his arms. "Can you help get my arms back? Do you think the doctors can get me another pair of hands?" Abbas asked. "If I don't get a pair of hands I will commit suicide," he said with tears spilling down his cheeks.

And as we see this looting going on all over Iraq lets not forget that the biggest looters are still to come. The biggest looters will wear not the rags of the poor of the slums of Baghdad, but the pin-striped suits of Wall Street and the city of London for whom this war is being fought. The pinstriped suits who have already decided that the new currency of Iraq will be the American dollar, who have already decided that Iraq's oil will be privatised and parcelled out to the thieves of Exxon and Esso and Shell and BP. And the people who are handing out multi-billion dollar contracts to rebuild Iraq - they haven't even finished destroying it. But be under no illusion, this is not as Mr. Churchill might have said "the beginning of the end" - this is just the end of the beginning! Just as the Afghan people are resisting foreign occupation, just as the Palestinian people are resisting foreign occupation, so the Iraqi people will resist and resist any occupation of their country. And we are the british resistance Mr Blair, and we are not going to go away!"

 


"USA Rogue State!"

 


Congregational Prayers in Iraq - A display of the Unity of Muslims

Lies and Misinformation to Divide and Rule Muslims
- Americas Black War

Whilst the reports on the war - the progress of American troops, the loss of civilian lives, etc. were full of contradictions and lies, here we look at one specific aspect of this black war - the lies and misinformation used by the invaders with the aim of dividing and disuniting the Muslims in Iraq This war against Islam and for the consolidation of the American empire is not over, we Muslims must learn the lessons from these early encounters if we are to triumph in the end.

The Invasion

       

Every leading Ulema of the Shia and Sunni had issued fatwas against co-operation with the American invaders. This caused problems for the Americans.

Firstly there was no Shia uprising. If they wanted to topple the brutal dictator Saddam that they themselves had installed to suppress the Shia of Iraq and to stop the spread of the Islamic Revolution, then they would have to get dirty and do their own work.

The Americans tried several times to initiate an uprising - they lay siege on Basra and cut of its water supply hoping thirst and starvation would force an uprising. When nothing happened their black propaganda went to work and they manufactured a fictitious uprising which all the western media lapped up without question. When still nothing happened they started firing on the city under the pretext of "providing support" for the so-called uprising. Many civilians lost their lives in the crossfire between the baathists and the americans.

Whilst the Shia hated Saddam and did not side with his henchmen, they fully understood that they were in the frying pan and America was the fire. At a critical moment of the war the American Central Command announced a mysterious fatwa claiming to come from one of the leading Shia Ulema in Iraq - Ayatullah Sistani. The fatwa ordered Muslims not to hinder the US advance and totally contradicted a fatwa he had issued last September which forbid Muslims to co-operate with the enemy. The announcement of the fatwa was sourced by many to come from the Al Khoei Foundation in London [ see Reuters April 3 2003, NYPost Wire Services April 4 2003, et el].

The next day, Ayatullah Sistani's office in Qum, Iran, denied the fatwa. The western media largely ignored this and by then the damage had been done.

Ayatullah Seestani office denies fatwa attributed to him

By: Jawad Saanayi, Mash'had, Iran
Jafariy News

GA statement issued from the office of Grand Ayatullah Ali As-Seestani said that the religious ruling, or fatwa attributed to him in which it was said that the grand Ayatullah As-Seestani has called upon the Iraqi people not to stand against US invading forces neither hinder them, is not true.

According to the statement, Grand Ayatullah As-Seestani’s office was contacted by a number of channels about the fatwa and all found it “untrue”.

Heah Ulamail Islam Al-Iraqia’s Hazrat Hujjatul Islam Ash-Sheikh Hadi Al-Khalsi has denied the existence of any proof that such type of fatwa was issued by Grand Ayatullah As-Seestani, for Shariah makes it obligatory to stand in the face of invasion (defence is obligatory) and upon the same all Maraje Ad-Diniyah (religious authorities) are agreed.

Khalsi alleged the group, which issued the baseless news (fatwa), that it has been in co-operation with the enemy (allied forces) since years. He said the famous fatwa by Ayatullah Seestani is “Hurmatut Ta’amul Ma’al Aa’daa (any type of work with enemy is forbidden)’

 

The Occupation

To help consolidate the occupation the invaders looked for pro-American leaders they could work with, and where none could be found they flew them in. For the critical Shia heartland of Najaf and Kerbala, the centres of Shia learning and religious leadership, they pinned their hopes on Abdul Majid al-Khoei, of the Al Khoei Foundation and the son of the late Grand Ayatollah Abul-Qasim al-Khoei. Abdul Majid al-Khoei was one of the few Muslims who had supported Tony Blair in pursuing military action. After a meeting with Tony Blair he left for Iraq, arriving in Najaf under the protection of American forces.

However the US soon encountered set backs to their plans. It was reported on Sahar TV (7 April) that :

Ayatullah Sayyed Ali Seestani and Ayatullah Saeed al-Hakim, have refused to meet with the anglo American military leaders and with Majeed al-Khui. Majid al-Khui is the British Foreign office representative (he was sent by the British Foreign Office). Coalition troops who had earlier bombed Najaf and Kerbala had hoped to control the situation in the holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala so as to help Majid al-Khui, so far all their efforts in this have been unfruitful.

And on April 10th Abdul Majid al-Khoei was killed in Najaf by a crowd angry at attempts to reinstall a baathist appointee, Haider Kelidar, as the keeper of the Shrine of Imam Ali(AS). It is claimed that just before his death Abdul Majid al-Khoei had been given authority by the Americans to administer Najaf, a city of 500,000 [Independent 11 April 03].

extracts taken from Jane's Defense Website article:

Iraq's unknown future: the Shi'a factor

J.Daly,
Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst 24 April 2003

As the USA tries to establish a post-Saddam democratic regime in Iraq, Washington's ultimate nightmare scenario is that the Shi'as, largely locked out of power since the accession of the Ba'athists in 1968, will assert themselves politically and deliver the country to fundamentalism through democratic elections.

In an incident of ominous portent for the coalition forces, Shi'a cleric Seyyed Abdul Majid al-Khoei was killed in Najaf at the Imam Ali mosque on 10 April. Al-Khoei had returned from London seven days earlier, where he had fled after the failed Shi'a uprising against Saddam in 1991.

According to the Al-Khoei Foundation in London, Al-Khoei saw his colleague and fellow cleric Haidar al-Kadar set on by a crowd and went to his aid. Al-Kadar had been responsible for the shrine under Saddam's ministry of religion and was, therefore, regarded as tainted. According to eyewitnesses, Al-Khoei pulled a gun and fired several shots in an attempt to defend Al-Kadar, after which the crowd killed both men. Al-Khoei's nephew Jawad said that a total of six people were killed in the tumult, including a US special forces officer assigned as a bodyguard; the officer's colleagues apparently remained outside the shrine as a mark of respect.

In retrospect, the incident was foreshadowed by several disturbing events. Grand ayatollahs Mirza Ali Sistani and Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim had refused to meet with Al-Khoei, a snub intended to indicate their disapproval for his close association with the coalition forces. Al-Hakim had spent his period of exile in Iran, while Sistani had stayed in Iraq ministering to the faithful.

The disparity between exile views was illuminated when Al-Khoei visited Iran shortly before the opening of the US campaign in mid-March, where demonstrators shouted "go back to America". After the US campaign began, Al-Khoei urged Shi'as to stay off the streets and not oppose the foreign forces. The perception of Al-Khoei as a US puppet was strengthened by the fact that he was usually accompanied by US special forces, who provided security.

Worse was to come. On 16 April, Ayatollah Seyyed Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, deputy leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), arrived to a hero's welcome in Kut, attended by thousands of his supporters. SCIRI is not co-operating with US plans for post-war Iraq, and boycotted the US-sponsored meeting in Nasiriyah on 15 April because it did not regard the meeting as legitimate on the grounds of the presence of 'outsiders'.

Al-Hakim said: "We refuse to put ourselves under the thumb of the Americans or any other country, because that it not in the Iraqis' interest." Worse, Al-Hakim noted that US threats against Syria and Iran only inflamed the Middle East.

Following Abdul-Majid Al-Khoei's death the war of lies continued. In order to weaken the Muslims and to justify their intervention the Americans tried to cause divisions and in fighting among the Shia. A report was released that Ayatullah Sistani's house was under siege and that he had been given 48 hours to leave Iraq, by supporters of Sayyed Muqatada Al Sadr, the son of the late Ayatullah Mohammed Sadeq al Sadr, who was murdered by Saddam in 1999. Further, rumours were spread that Abdul-Majid Al-Khoei had been killed by these same people.


Humiliation of occupation

Roula Khalaf of the Financial Times recently visited the house of Ayatullah Sistani in Najaf and talking through his spokesman (the Ayatullah's son). The interview confirmed that the house siege was a total lie, fabricated to serve US interests:

Islamic leader blames US for the chaos

By Roula Khalaf in Najaf,
Financial Times April 18 2003

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highly influential Iraqi Shia cleric, on Friday criticised what he called the "foreign domination" over Iraq and blamed the US-led coalition for the lack of security that provoked chaos after the fall of the regime.

Calling on the US to allow Iraqis to rule themselves, the ayatollah's spokesman, a son, said foreign troops had paved the way for chaos to replace the regime of Saddam Hussein.

"Why didn't they [the US forces] put a tank in front of the national museum as they put one in front of the oil ministry?" Mr al-Sistani, speaking at the house of the Ayatollah in Naj af, asked the FT.

"The current situation is one of chaos, lack of security and foreign domination."

Lamenting the loss of Iraq's national treasures and the looting of public buildings, universities and the national library in Baghdad, he said: "They opened the way for disorder and l ooting so they can control the country."

The religious official spoke as thousands of Iraqis demonstrated in the streets of Baghdad after the first Friday sermons since the fall of the regime. As some clerics lashed out at the US, protestors called for the establishment of an Islamic state.

Ayatollah Sistani is considered by many Iraqis to be the highest Shia authority in the country. His criticism is a blow to US efforts to win the confidence of the population in the po stwar transition and a sign of strong resistance to US plans to lead an interim Iraqi administration.

That the oil ministry was among the few public buildings in Baghdad to be saved from destruction - US forces say they it was looted but they were able to secure it before any attempt to burn it - has aggravated suspicions about US intentions.

The spokesman for the ayatollah suggested that the key principle - that Iraqis should rule themselves - had yet to be established and he warned that no one but Iraqis should be allowe d to make decisions on the oil industry.

"At this stage the principle must be established: We have to leave Iraq to Iraqis. This is the key issue. One moment of domination is not acceptable," he said.

While some observers fret that the country will disintegrate if left too soon to its own people, the spokesman warned that US control over Iraq would provoke internal unrest.

"There are political parties and movements in Iraq; if Iraqis are not allowed a role themselves, there are dangers of divisions, of contradictions, and of infighting," he said.

He said the ayatollah had not issued any fatwas, or religious edicts, to guide Shias in their attitude towards the war or its aftermath, denying a claim by the US army that he had asked followers not to hinder the advance of US troops.

"That was not true. There were no fatwas issued since the beginning of the war except one - it was against looting of public property," said the spokesman.

Mr Sistani said the lack of security left the ayatollah and his entourage in danger. But he denied reports that the senior cleric's house had been besieged by radicals last week. He explained that the ayatollah had decided to stop seeing visitors, in protest against the recent killings in the holy shrine of Imam Ali including that of Abdelmajid al-Khoi, a cleric recently returned from London and backed by the US.


Terrorising the population

Extracts from a right wing American publication gives us clues to how American plans to prevent the people of Iraq from voting an Islamic Government in to power:-

The Pentagon's Plan For The Shia

by Lawrence F. Kaplan
The New Republic
2 May 2003

Last week, the United States confronted a philosophical dilemma. Responding to televised images of angry Iraqis denouncing the United States, a chorus of Arab diplomats and American pundits warned that democracy in Iraq could lead to, well, theocracy in Iraq. Yet the Bush team seemed unfazed. When asked about the potential for clerical rule in Iraq, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld responded, "That isn't going to happen."

"The bottom line," explains a senior State Department official, "is we control the purse strings, the appointments, and anything else of political value [in postwar Iraq]. Not just anyone is going to get access to this." The membership of a soon-to-be-organized Iraqi coordinating council will be vetted by American officials and "stacked" with friendly voices, particularly those belonging to the Iraqi National Congress (INC). Updating the Nixon Doctrine for Iraq, Pentagon officials intend the organization to fight political battles that Washington would rather not—marginalizing anti-American clerics and politicians without visible U.S. involvement. (Alas, this will do nothing to diminish the not entirely inaccurate perception of the INC as a U.S. proxy.)

Nor will Shia extremists have an opportunity to seize power through the ballot box, at least not any time soon. Members of the Bush team claim that, prior to any referendum, a constitution must be drawn up, an assembly convened, judicial reform enacted—all under the auspices of liberal Iraqis with close ties to the United States. Further, that constitution will include clauses designed to impede the rise of illiberal forces—among these, the diffusion of national power along federal lines, detailed arrangements for sharing that power in Baghdad, perhaps a ban on "totalitarian" political parties, and a commitment to regular elections. Those elections, moreover, will be held on a "rolling" basis, beginning at the municipal level and proceeding only slowly toward the Iraqi center. In the meantime, American officials hope an influx of financial and humanitarian assistance will diminish Shia resentments in Iraq's south. And, when elections do come, administration officials predict that a more discrete and narrowly tailored influx of "aid" will give liberal forces an advantage. Special Forces and CIA officers have already fanned out across Iraq's south to bolster and create moderate Shia voices. Covert assistance may even be channeled to Shia clerics...

An interesting follow up to the above article appeared as breaking news just as we were about to publish this page. It claims that Abdul-Majid Al-Khoei had been given $13 Million by the CIA in a covert operation to cultivate pro-American elements among the Shia. The accusation appeared in a number of publications including NewsDay and the Guardian [ "Murdered cleric 'was given £8m by CIA'" , Ewen MacAskill in Najaf, May 3, 2003].

Cleric's Killing a Setback to U.S.
CIA lost an ally and $13M

By Knut Royce
WASHINGTON BUREAU, Newsday

May 2, 2003


Washington - The United States suffered a major blow in its campaign to recruit friendly Shia clerics inside Iraq last month when it lost an influential religious ally to an angry mob - and up to $13 million the CIA had given him to cultivate supporters.

While he was widely perceived to be pro-American, Iraqis were unaware that the cleric, Abdel Majid al-Khoei, had agreed to use the CIA cash in a covert program to enlist support within the splintered Shia community, according to knowledgeable U.S. sources.

Al-Khoei and a pro-Saddam Hussein religious leader were stabbed to death on April 10 in front of a mosque in the holy city of Najaf by an angry mob reportedly backing competing Shia clergy.

Witnesses to the slaying said that as al-Khoei was being stabbed, a number of $100 and $50 bills in U.S. currency spilled out of his clerical robes. "There was some American money flying around with lots of blood on it," said one of the witnesses, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution. "The money was hidden in his clothes, and that made the crowd even angrier at him."

Al-Khoei's pro-American sympathies were no secret, and he had returned to Iraq from exile in London several days earlier with the assistance of U.S. troops, who provided a constant escort as he traveled through Najaf. He had urged the Shia community to support the U.S. war to topple Hussein and on the day he was killed was preaching reconciliation with former Hussein backers.

The U.S. government clearly saw in al-Khoei a valuable asset in enlisting support among Shia, who, though splintered, have become increasingly vocal in their calls for the U.S. military to leave Iraq.

And the covert operation underscores the high stakes involved in America's efforts to establish a postwar government coalition of competing factions that is democratic and sympathetic to Western values. Some of the country's 16 million Shia, who constitute 60 percent of the population, want an Islamic state.

"We allocated $13 million to the al-Khoei operation," said a well-placed intelligence source. "It was part of a covert action program to strengthen Shiites who are pro- Western" and to recruit new allies.

"I don't know where the $13 million is," he said. "... A good chunk of it is missing."

An administration official familiar with the CIA's operation declined to discuss how much money may have been lost or retrieved. Asked whether the cash may have been a motive behind the killing, he said, "I guess you can't rule it out, but I doubt it."

The administration official described the loss of al-Khoei as a "significant" setback to U.S. efforts to counter Iranian influence within the Shia clergy and to cultivate a moderate, if not necessarily pro-American, bloc within the community.

 

 

The Liberation

The liberation of Iraq from US domination will not be an easy task, and can only come from the unity of the Muslims of Iraq. United across ethnic (Arab and Kurd) and sectarian (Shia and Sunni) divides.

The Muslims must guard against falling in to the traps and plots hatched by the occupiers. The Americans are trying their best to cause divisions. It was reported in the Independent [April 20] that some Fedayeen volunteers from Arab countries who came to fight for Saddam are now turning their guns on the Shi'ites in al-Sadr-City- indiscriminately shooting from cars in to crowds in the shantytown before driving away. When the locals managed to overpower and capture some of them and hand them over to the coalition troops, to their horror they discovered the Americans were letting them go so that they could continue their reign of sectarian terror. The residents of al-Sadr City understood the American intentions and have been careful to distinguish between these foreign elements and their local Sunni neighbours.

In the north the Americans are purposely fuelling tensions between Kurds, returning to their homes which were taken from them by Saddam, and the Sunni Arabs who were moved in to those homes some 20 years ago by Saddam as part of his arabization programme. The Americans have purposely perpetuated a vacuum of authority to encourage looting and lawlessness. In the absence of any legal authority to submit claims to, Kurds and Arabs are pitted against each other, house by house in the American hope that one of the encounters will ignite the ethnic tinderbox and lead to bloodshed and civil war. [Chicargo Tribune April 27].

The Iraqis are an educated nation and fully understand the game being played by the Americans and are working hard to ensure unity. Demonstration are jointly co-ordinated between Shia and Sunni Imams and Mosques. The slogans are carefully chosen to remove any ambiguity and to direct all the passion and energy released at the collapse of baathist rule towards ending the occupation. The slogans read - "No Shia, No Sunni, Islam Islam", "Iraq - One people, One country", "Muslims be united", "Yes Yes Islamic Government", "Down Down USA", "Bush = Saddam". They are ensuring that nothing is allowed to divide them - that is the secret to liberation.

© www.inminds.co.uk 2003

 

 


Bush in Blairs hair and in his eyes!



Wasan Altikriti

Wasan Altikriti, 16 year old Iraqi sister from MAB Youth section:

"It is disgraceful that this atrocity was described as a war to liberate the Iraqi people. My people have only been further enslaved and my land has been offered on a golden plate to american and western companies..."

 

 

 


War Criminal -BusWar Criminal



Louise Christian

Louise Christian, a Human Rights lawyer and member of the Socialist Alliance:

"I only know of three lawyers in Britain who thought this war was lawful. One the attorney general, two the lawyer who advised him, and three the wife of the Prime Minister - no other lawyer thinks this war is lawful...

And today we heard the chief inspector of weapons Hans Flix say that he now realises that it was all planned in advanced. He now realises that the evidence they needed to go to war was fabricated. The whole world knows that this war was not lawful, that they have been telling lies.

I want to talk to you about the 660 Muslim men in Guantanamo Bay because I'm acting for the families of three of them. And they say that even now they have 300 more Muslim men in Iraq lined up to join them. On the one hand they say that Saddam was forcing people and his troops were forcing people at gun point to fight and on the other hand those people that were forced to fight are going to be send to the illegal black hole of Guantanamo Bay never to be seen again.

I want to urge everyone here, please do not forget those young men in Guantananamo Bay - there are nine British citizens, but there are more than 660 from all over the world. They are in cells eight foot by six foot, they are only allowed to exercise twice a week - 15 minutes each time! The international minimum standard is 1 hour of exercise a day. Many of their families haven't heard from them for months and months. Those that do are getting letter which were written many months ago. They are all denied access to a lawyer- they have no access to a court. The US is behaving in breach of international law on holding these people and the UK government is doing nothing for them -its saying nothing -its making no protest. Write to your MP, protest about those young men being held in that illegal black hole and protest about the people being held indefinitely here.

I am a human right lawyer, I believe passionately in human rights , with uniting people. I believe its a philosophy which provides an international framework of law. I never thought I would say this but I believe that our prime minister is a war criminal. I believe Geoff Hoon is a war criminal... I believe Jack Straw is a war criminal. The international criminal court should indict them for the murder and the maiming of children And we should demand the international criminal court does something about this - all of you should demand that!"

 


Tree of Wisdom



Tree of wisdom - hundreds of messages,
nuggets of wisdom left hanging as leaves from this tree.
Read a message, learn something,
and contribute your message - your wisdom
- add a leaf to the tree .


Origami bird of peace hanging from the tree of wisdom,
messages next to it read "Dont Attack Iraq"
and " - How can you smile as you kill?"


Cut out peace dove shares a twig with an anti-war
painting - Picasso's Guernica and an invitation to
the "Carnival Against Oil Wars and Climate Chaos"
at the BP AGM on April 24th.

 


A reference to the real motives of the war:
"How many Iraqis per gallon?"



Hamdeen Sabahy

Hamdeen Sabahy, an independent MP from Egypt (the Nasserist-inspired Dignity Movement) and anti-war activist (Egyptian Popular Campaign to Confront U.S. Aggression.) :

"This war is not coming to an end. The American horror is greedy for more blood and for more oil, tomorrow it may be Iran it may be Syria. We are happy in Egypt to have stood together with people from around the world in this massive movement against the war under the slogan Stop The War. What we are saying is that we need is more protests and a bigger movement we can build a movement together that says no more american wars of aggression.

I am happy to be here today in the heart of London, to greet you on behalf of the Arab people of of Egypt who came in their out in their thousands to protest against the US attack on Iraq, just as they came of to protest the attack on Palestine by the zionist state on the 21st march the Medan Tahrir - the centre square in Cairo - was filled with thousands of protesters. We said for one day Medan Tahrir became Hyde Park. We want to ask you to support our demands for democracy, our struggle for democracy in the Arab world. We want to see every Arab capital become Hyde Park - not just for one day, but every day. We ask you for your support for our struggle for democracy and our demands of the Egyptian government to respect human rights and to release the prisoners they have detained - activists from the antiwar movement, and in particular Dr. Ashraf El-Bayoumi.


Hamdeen Sabahy and translator

This historic moment when an Arab capital is being occupied and when the US believes it can impose American style globalisation on the world, we believe that the power that can resist this globalisation is not another country like the soviet union, but actually the real superpower in the world is the force of humanity that came out on the 15th of February in 600 cities around the world - that's the force that can stop this globalisation.

We will continue to fight for the freedom of the Palestinian people, as we continue to fight for the freedom of the Arab people, as we will continue to fight for the freedom of the American people to free them from the domination of George Bush and his right wing clique... The Arab people reject the occupation of Iraq and we believe fully that Iraq where humanity wrote its fist letter will also be the place they will put the full stop on George Bush's book of American occupation and domination. Victory of humanity!"


Hamdeen Sabahy greeted with a Palestinian flag

 


A Muslim marches with evidence of US war crimes pinned to his body



Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui

 

Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, of the Muslim Parliament (*):

"We were told that Saddam is an evil person - but we already know it. It is because he was an evil person that is the reason he was brought to power in the first place by the Americans - because they wanted an insane person, an evil person to attack Iran to stop the revolution spreading and also kill his own people. We also know that when Saddam bombed Halabja with chemical weapons it was America which said we are not sure who has bombed the Kurdish people maybe the Iranians have done it. We have seen the hypocrisy all along.

When ever Saddam is found - there is already a demand that he should be tried for war crimes. But I want to see if justice has any meaning - that other people who have aided and abetted him like Reagan, Thatcher, Bush senior and Rumsfeld, they should also be tried for war crimes..."

 

(*) Please do not confuse Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui and the current Muslim Parliament with Dr Kalim Siddiqui and his inspirational leadership and founding of the Muslim Parliament. The Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought, which continues the work initiated by Dr.Kalim Siddiqui, describe the Muslim Parliament with the following words:

When it was inaugurated in 1992, the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain was a radical new sort of Muslim political organization for minority Muslim communities living in the west -- a "minority political system for Muslims in Britain" and a "non-territorial Islamic state". Unfortunately, it declined rapidly after Dr Kalim Siddiqui's death, and is now effectively defunct.

 


Faces in the Crowd - Ordinary people
objecting to this war of occupation...

 


This young girl, with no megaphone, lead the chanting:

They call it liberation, We know its occupation
No war, On Iraq
1 2 3 4 We dont want a bloody war
5 6 7 8 Stop the killing stop the hate



No War - Face in the crowd


Denouncing the occupation

 


No War - children against the war

 


Face in the crowd - holding the "The Proud Parents" postcard


Faces in the crowd



Wrapped in a peace flag


faces in the crowd


Victory to Palestine

 



Bruce Kent

Bruce Kent, Peace movement veteran, CND:

"We have seen murder and we must do everything we can to bring Tony Blair to the new international criminal court. Please look up the the CND website, and you can see a petition to sign to get him there.


Indict Blair to answer for his actions at the Hague

It has been often said that this world has only one super power - military, economic and political - only one superpower. Its not true - you are the next super power - ordinary people of this world..."

 

 

 

 


"Operation Iraqi Liberation - OIL"
Stop the invasion of Iraq - Stop War Crimes in Iraq



Paul Mackney

 

Paul Mackney, General Secretary of the University & College Lectures Union (NATFHE):

"Are you listening Tony Blair... we are not impressed. If this is what victory tastes like then you can keep it. Because it is not a victory for democracy, it is a victory for hypocrisy. We've had the hypocrisy. of condemning Iraqis for showing prisoners faces on TV while the US is holding in cages about 700 so called unlawful combatants in Guantanamo Bay in breech of 15 articles of the Geneva Conventions. We've had the hypocrisy. of ignoring the UN resolutions on Palestine. We've had the hypocrisy of ignoring the occupation of Palestine and Jack Straw I think we now know who has the weapons of mass destruction.

I guess we all know what its about now. You flatten a country, slaughter its people, because you're committed to rebuilding it. You parcel out the reconstruction contracts to your mates before you go in and you allow the chaos of looting to make it worse... its a bit like an arsonist burning down the street and coming back the next day to say the good news is my brother-in-law can put it back up for you at a very reasonable price!

And I have a word for Madeleine Bunting of the Guardian, she says we've done marching it makes no difference. Well she's completely wrong! Every demonstration tells them that the world is watching - it makes them think twice before they bulldoze another village.

And when the government of your own country is engaged in war crimes, civil disobedience becomes an obligation.

This is an ignominious moment in British history. This was not a war to free Iraq, it was a war to tell the whole world that they should obey the USA and accept their dominance! "

 


Liberation? I Don't Think So

Fun-Da-Mental

Anti-imperialist music band Fun-da-mental
performed at the end of the rally


"Sometimes symbols say everything..."
No.1 Terrorist = USA

Download (shift-click) speech (real audio 11:32mins 1.4Mb

 

 

Deen: "I've got some lyrics here, they were actually written by Haile Selassie , and made popular by Bob Marley. I'm going to use these lyrics because they are relevant. The track is know as War."


Deen

War

Until the philosophy
W
hich hold one race
Superior
And another
Inferior
Is finally
And permanently
Discredited
And abandoned -
There shall be war.

That until
There is no longer
First class
And second class citizens
Of any nation
There shall be war.

Until the colour
Of a man's skin
Is of no more
Significance
Than the colour
Of his eyes -
There shall be war.

That until
The basic human rights
Are equally guaranteed
To all,
Regardless of race -
This is war.

Until that day
On this continent
You will not know peace
We will fight -
Because we find it necessary
And we know
We shall win
As we are confident
Of our victory.

This is war.

 

Mush: His lyrics are on Palestine (*).


Mush, his t-shirt reads
"Dont Panic, I'm Islamic"

 

Its better to die
on your feet
than to live
on your knees
It better to fight
defeat
than be a coward
in peace

...

This Zionist matrix
This matrix
its finally over
followers of Jehovah
witness the quietness
overcome your sickness
invaders of Palestine
you are no pal of mine

...

you fool all the people
for some of the time
but some of the people
know all of your crimes
you fall in to line
collaborate with the swine

...

all the death squads plot
while the Ummah's asleep
the gunners did seek
head shots to the weak
baby killers

...

Gods chosen people
became the frozen people
with hearts cold as ice
spread lies
and stole the land.

 

Kashan: His lyrics were on the unjust war and ordinary peoples responsibility (*) .


Kashan

...

right in front of your eyes
every time a child dies
a mother cries
its no surprise
right in front of your eyes

...

when they commit horrific acts of violence
someone has to dissent
so I spoke up
because silence is consent
silence is consent!

 

Fundamental Official Website:
http://fundamental.free.fr

(*) We couldn't make out all the lyrics, if you know them please email them to us and we will update the page.

 

 

url: http://www.inminds.com/end-occupation-rally-3-12apr03.html


[First Part]

Previously:

Speeches: Anita Halpin (NUJ), Hana - Sinead - Catherine (School Students Against the War), Michael Foot (former Labour leader), Tam Dalyell (MP), Hudaifa Shakir (Iraqi Islamic Party), Akil Kurza (Kurdistan National Congress), Felicity Arbuthnot (Journalist), Susan Karim (family killed in war), Alan Simpson (MP), Imran Khan (Ex-cricketer, Politician), Ann Quesne (Land Mines Action), Bernard Regan (Palestinian Solidarity), Carol Naughton (CND), Sue Doughty (MP), Glenda Jackson (MP), Haifa Zangana (Iraqi Novelist), Jeremy Corbyn (MP), Darren Johnson (London Asembly), Mark Seddon (Editor Tribune), Tony Benn

Special Features: Imam Khamenei's message on Iraq, Artists Against the War, US Troops & looting., Reconstruction Contracts, Bombs followed by Bibles

And more photos and sounds from the rally

[Part 1]     [Part 2]


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