Report by IDAO on current developments, 26 September 2004

USA and Tony Blair prepare for a new war in Iraq

The wave of kidnappings in Iraq reflects one small aspect of the deteriorating security situation under occupation. The predominant picture, however, is that of widespread resistance to US-British occupation of Iraq, resulting in more than 87 attacks per day on occupation forces, and of daily bombardment by US forces of Falluja and other areas of Iraq, killings many Iraqi citizens daily. These escalations seem to be in preparation for the next war against the people of Iraq, a war that Tony Blair and the US government have already started talking about. According to an editorial of the 14th September in the democratic left Baghdad newspaper, Al-Ghad:

"The occupation forces instigated the present round of fighting, according to a plan to end the mass movement of the 'Al Sadr Current' with brute force in order to silence all patriotic opposition and to break the people's will and finally impose a regime which is to the liking of the USA. They used the local police to provoke the fighting, after their failure to rule Iraq directly; they introduced the Interim Governing Council, composed of some political parties, which collaborated with the occupation. These parties lost all credibility with the people. The occupiers presented the Interim Governing Council as a legal entity to the international community and followed that by the current interim regime and the so called interim Parliament, the members of which are chosen from the same parties. The occupiers are still waging war all over Iraq's other cities especially Al Thoura/ Sadr town east of Baghdad, Tell Afar, Fallujah and other southern cities." Click for translation of the Al-Ghad editorial.

Plundering Iraqi wealth leaves the Iraqi people poorer than ever
While the US is talking and preparing for war, the living conditions of the Iraqi people continues to deteriorate. For the first time in modern Iraqi history we have serious outbreaks of the deadly Hepititus B virus, which can kill pregnant women, in the poor areas of Sadr City and Mahmoudia. Iraqi health officials cited sharp deterioration of water and food quality in Iraq in the last 17 months as one reason for the outbreak. So where are Iraq's billions disappearing? In a report on the front page of the World Street Journal of 17 September, UN auditors are in a clash with the US on the way it handled $20 billion earmarked for reconstruction projects, including $8.8 billion not accounted for.

The coming phoney elections in Iraq The US occupation forces and its appointed government continue to suppress any signs of resistance to its occupation, by mass arrests, suspected assassinations, aerial bombardments of Falluja and Sadr City, and arrests of officials of the Sadr movement and the Association of Muslim Scholars. All the signs are that the Iraqi people will be presented in January with a single list of political parties that constitute the present US appointed government. No wonder the Iraqi people are already voicing deep scepticism about an elections held under an occupation bent on imposing its will, with no credible supervision by internationally independent bodies.

In an AP report of 26 September, Baghdad University political scientist Dr. Wameedh Omar said "Do you think that the Americans will allow the election to produce anti-occupation winners?". "The Americans cannot lose in either case," said Muthana al-Dhari, a senior member of the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, echoing a widespread notion in Iraq. "An election will produce a government loyal to them. If no elections are held, then its occupation of Iraq will continue," said al-Dhari.

The same editorial of Al-Ghad has demanded the departure of all occupation forces according to an agreed time-table supervised by the UN, as a way for ending the political and humanitarian crisis in Iraq, and for forming a government of national unity that paves for ending the occupation of Iraq.

In a series of editorials this month, the Financial Times, has echoed wide held views in the West that a more rational solution should be found to have peace and stability in the region, when it said:

"There is an urgent need for military restraint by the US, and for a much more inclusive political process that opens up a game now monopolised by hand-picked expatriate politicians to opponents of the occupation... " What is important now is to build a process leading up to elections that wins the support and rekindles the hope of Iraqis. Instead, there are already signs of another stitch-up by the American's and their Iraqi nominees, whereby pre-agreed national lists of allies of the current appointed politicians would be put to what would be a referendum rather than a contested elections" (FT editorial 17 September).

It is this possibility that led Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani to voice concerns about the forthcoming elections and for the UN to resist more involvement in Iraq so that it is not used to legitimise an undemocratic 'elections'.

According to democratic left forces, Iraq is now entering a new dangerous phase, and the possibility of an escalating war on the Iraqi people, requiring more than ever a united front of all strands of Iraqi society demanding genuine elections, not under US control, and paving the way for withdrawal of occupation troops.

Iraqi women in Sadr City demonstrating their support for the resistance in the Sadr suburb of Baghdad, home of 2 million people.