Workers Daily Internet Edition Year 2003 No. 28

Year 2003 No. 28, April 7, 2003	ARCHIVE	HOME	SEARCH	SUBSCRIBE

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Anti-War Marchers to Confront Bush

Meeting in India to Condemn US Aggression against Iraq

A public meeting in New Delhi, India, on Thursday, April 10, is set to condemn the US aggression against Iraq. The participants include Anand Swaroop Varma, Arundathi Roy, Justice AS Bains, Prof BS Chimni, GN Saibaba, IK Gujral (Former PM), Mani Shankar Iyer (MP), Harish Chandola, Justice Rajinder Sachar, Ramaswamy R Iyer, Prof Rajni Kothari, Razia Ismail, TS Sankaran, Siddharth Varadarajan, Somnath Chatterjee (MP), and Vandana Shiva.

The meeting is being organised by the Lok Raj Sangathan, which is committed to the creation of a new political power with new forms of governance so as to vest sovereignty in the hands of the people. Membership of the Lok Raj Sangathan is open to all Indian citizens and persons of Indian origin who wish to participate in and contribute to the renewal of Indian democracy and to the reconstitution of the Indian Union on a voluntary basis.:p>

In setting the scene for the public meeting, the Lok Raj Sangathan points out::p>

“The US has launched its brutal invasion of Iraq, in blatant defiance of world public opinion and of the UN Security Council. This act of unprovoked aggression is aimed at subduing with overwhelming military force a country and its brave people who stand in the way of its naked imperialist designs. It is also aimed at striking terror in the hearts of the world's people as a whole, by demonstrating the awesome firepower and arrogant might of the US.

“The United Nations first disarmed Iraq through the Security Council, and then failed to defend the Iraqi people, the victims of such one-sided aggression. The Indian Government, instead of condemning the aggression, has adopted a cynical and opportunistic ‘middle path’, bringing shame on our people, who condemn it wholeheartedly.

“The invasion of Iraq is symptomatic of the new world order that the US imperialists are trying to impose, in which the fundamental tenets of international law and justice, including the equality of all nations and of the sovereignty of countries can be violated with impunity by the powerful. In this situation which poses grave dangers to the peoples of the world, there is an urgent need for people to come together to unequivocally condemn the US invasion and aggression against Iraq, demand the unconditional withdrawal of all US and its allied forces from Iraqi soil, and to discuss the burning issues that have come to the fore at this critical time.”

The meeting is scheduled to discuss issues such as: the right of nations to defend their sovereignty and to determine their own economic and political system; the inability of the UN Security Council to end US aggression and punish the aggressors; the refusal of the Indian government to condemn US aggression; and the steps that the people's movement needs to take to force the Indian Parliament and government to defend the Iraqi people and oppose the US aggressor’s growing fascisation in India and US in the name of "war against terrorism".

The Iraq Peace Team in Baghdad

Since September 2002, non-violent activists have been on the ground in Iraq. Initiated by Voices in the Wilderness, the Iraq Peace Team (IPT) exists to stand in solidarity with the peoples of Iraq. IPT is remaining in Iraq in the conditions of the attack on Iraq with these intentions: We will live among the Iraqi people during any aggression directed at them, including continued economic sanctions; we will use our presence and non-violent actions to witness, understand and expose the situation of both the civilian population of Iraq and highlight the importance of facilities such as water purification plants that are critical to daily life; we will report on our experiences in Iraq through this website, our support teams, and all who will listen.

Received on April 5, their latest communication reads:

Dear Friends,

Sorry for the lapse in communication. Our own inbox is flooded every day with more email than we can keep up with, so we try to write only when we have something urgent to share.

Our team in Baghdad is now down to thirteen. Citing restricted movement, difficulty communicating with the outside world, and diminishing funds, a convoy of Iraq Peace Team and Christian Peacemaker Team volunteers left Baghdad for Amman, Jordan on Tuesday. Many of them will be returning to their communities to share their experiences and organise against this war.

Those who remain in Baghdad face many difficulties. For now they are severely restricted by a government bracing for invasion. The authorities are concerned about the long hours spent transmitting messages back home via satellite phone. One government official suggested that we submit our reports to officials before sending them out to assuage suspicions. The team refused, choosing to sacrifice frequent reports for the integrity of independence. We will continue our struggle to maintain an independent presence in Iraq, regardless of the circumstances.

There is also the question of how to face occupation forces if and when they enter Baghdad. The team is constantly planning for any number of possible outcomes. There are still many uncertainties.

So stay tuned, we are expecting an update soon. There is much work to be done.

Sincerely,

Jeff Guntzel, for Voices in the Wilderness

*******************

IPT Update: The Monster is Coming (March 31, 2003)

Dear Friends,

Since the last update, several of our people have left Iraq, most of them ordered out of the country by Iraqi officials. Many if them were in Iraq as volunteers for the Chicago based Christian Peacemaker Teams. An Associated Press report of the expulsion and team's eventful journey to Jordan follows.

We have had almost no contact with our team in Baghdad over the last few days. However, an email from Kathy Kelly managed to find its way to our inbox this morning:

"Cathy Breen and I visited Amal at the home of her friends, having heard that her home had been further destroyed by ongoing bombing. She then took us to her house which faces the river, graced by a garden where flowers are blossoming. Picking our way through broken glass at the entrance, we entered what was once one of the most well appointed homes in Baghdad. The rooms are in disarray. Several walls are cracked, the windows are all shattered, and a thick layer of dust and grime covers the exposed furniture, books, carpets and floors.

"'It was my silly feeling,' Amal said matter-of-factly, 'that this will not happen. I did not move anything.' She emphasised several times that neighbours could have removed everything, in the past two days. ‘The house is open. The whole area knows about it. But nobody moved anything.' Amal wasn¹t in her home when the windows shattered and the doors were blown out. 'By chance, that night, I forgot my key and for that reason I stayed with my friends.' Ten minutes after we arrived at her home, the US began bombing. 'They are starting it again," sighed Amal. "We should go very quickly.'

"We rejoined Amal¹s friends, two sisters who, like Amal, are elderly, scholarly, staunch, and furious. I first met them in the summer of 2002, when they invited me to tell a gathering of two dozen or so Iraqi friends about my experiences, in April 2001, inside the Jenin Camp, in the West Bank, just after Israeli troops had destroyed hundreds of homes in a civilian neighbourhood, using overwhelming military force. Amal and her friends were deeply angered when I showed them enlarged pictures of homes in the Jenin Camp that were reduced to rubble. They said they¹ve always felt intense grief for the Palestinians who¹ve suffered under occupation. It was unthinkable, then, that Amal herself would become homeless and face life under occupation less than a year later.

"'It is so unfair,' said Amal. 'From the simplest people to the highest people, all have suffered.' Later that night, we learned that Voice of America radio had confirmed that an Iraqi military officer approached a US military checkpoint in Iraq appearing to be a cab driver wishing to surrender. The driver detonated a load of explosives inside the cab, killing himself and four US soldiers.

"Amal has paid a high price for guessing wrongly about whether or not the US would wage a massive attack against Iraq. She didn¹t bother to safeguard her impressive collection of valuable artwork, books, and other belongings. She and her friends aren¹t guessing now. They are positive that US warmakers will pay a lethal and grisly price for any attempts to overtake and occupy Iraq. 'We will lose the battle, but the US is not the winner,' she vowed. 'The children talk about the monster coming. We will push back the monster, with our hands.'"

We will continue you send you updates on our teams status and experience inside Iraq.

All my best,

Jeff Guntzel, for Voices in the Wilderness

*******************

Peace activists confirm Iraqi hospital bombed

Charles J. Hanley, AP Special Correspondent, Associated Press

30 March 2003

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) – Bruised and bleeding, in need of medical care, the Americans stranded in Iraq's western desert approached the mud-brick town and found the hospital destroyed by bombs.

"Why? Why?" a doctor demanded of them. "Why did you Americans bomb our children's hospital?" Scores of Iraqi townspeople crowded around.

The American peace activists' account was the first confirmation of a report last week that a hospital in Rutbah was bombed Wednesday, with dead and injured. The travellers said they saw no significant Iraqi military presence near the hospital or elsewhere in Rutbah. The doctor did not discuss casualties, the Americans said.

US Central Command said Sunday it had no knowledge of a hospital bombing in Rutbah. The US military has said it is doing its best to avoid civilian casualties in its campaign to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

For the battered band of peace activists, recounting their nerve-jarring exit from Iraq on Sunday, it was one of the worst moments in 10 days of war.

That exit had begun at 9:15 a.m. Saturday, when a dozen foreigners – eight American and one Irish member of the Iraq Peace Team, and three unaffiliated Japanese and South Korean activists – set out from Baghdad on the 300-mile trek to the western border with Jordan, through a nation at war.

Members of the antiwar group have shuttled in and out of the Iraqi capital for months to take part in vigils, small demonstrations and other activities to protest US war plans. Since March 20, they have borne witness and compiled reports on the US bombing of Baghdad.

Some who left Saturday had been ordered out by jittery Iraqi bureaucrats for a minor infraction – taking snapshots in Baghdad without an official escort. Others said they left to get out the story of the Baghdad bombing.

The journey was a straight shot through the gritty western desert, the Badiyat ash-Sham, over a divided superhighway eerily empty of traffic. American special forces and warplanes have been staging raids and air attacks on isolated targets across the west.

"I'd say we passed up to 20 bombed-out, burned-out vehicles along the way," said Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, 22, a student. Four were Iraqi tanks and other military vehicles, he said, but the others appeared to be civilian, including a bus and an ambulance.

"We had to detour around a bombed-out bridge, dodge light poles down across the road," said Shane Claiborne, 27, a community organiser from Philadelphia.

Three times the group – in a big white GMC Suburban and two yellow taxis – spotted bomb explosions nearby. The last, in early afternoon, occurred near the far-western town of Rutbah. Their Iraqi drivers' nerves were fraying as they sped toward Jordan at 80 mph.

"He kept going faster, faster," Betty Scholten, 69, said of her driver.

Suddenly the lagging taxi, pushing to catch up, blew a tire. It careened, spun out of control and plunged down a ditch, landing on its side. "It was a heavy hit," Claiborne said. All five men inside were hurt. "We pulled each other up through the side doors."

A passing car eventually braked to a halt. The Iraqis inside got out, helped the injured into their vehicle and drove back toward Rutbah and a hospital. Along the way, Claiborne said, he spotted the contrails of a jet streaking toward the car. The Iraqis frantically waved a white sheet out a window, and the plane veered off, he said.

In poor, remote Rutbah, a burned-out oil tanker truck sat in the road, and the customs building and communications centre had been wrecked by bombing. When they reached the hospital, they saw it, too, had been bombed, its roof caved in.

Claiborne said an English-speaking Iraqi doctor took them to a small nearby clinic, and 100 or so townspeople then gathered around the building. The men were worried, but the doctor told them, "We'll take care of you. Muslim, Christian, whatever, we are all brothers and sisters,'" Claiborne recalled.

The staff tended to them, stitching up a scalp laceration for group leader Cliff Kindy, 53, and doing their best for the worst hurt, Weldon Nisly, 57, of Seattle, who suffered cracked ribs and similar injuries.

The two other carloads, missing the third, eventually doubled back and found the men in Rutbah. All then ventured onward the final 80 miles to the Jordan border, and then Amman, where Nisly was admitted to a hospital early Sunday.

As they left Rutbah, said Wilson-Hartgrove's wife, Leah, 22, the villagers "said to us, 'Please tell them about the hospital.'"

UN Agency Protests against Israeli Occupation of Refugee Camp Girls’ School

The main United Nations agency providing assistance to Palestine refugees protested on April 3 against the Israeli military’s occupation of a girls’ school in the Tulkarem refugee camp in the West Bank, calling it a flagrant violation of international law.

According to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Israeli military forces broke into and occupied the Agency school in the early morning on April 2 and proceeded to use the school as a detention centre for male residents of the camp between the ages of 15 and 40.

The Agency said the occupation was not the first such abuse of UNRWA's humanitarian installations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, citing the Israeli military’s repeated use last year of UNRWA schools as detention centres, and in some cases, the use of UNRWA installations as bases from which they launched military operations. In all cases, the Agency protested to the Israeli authorities but received no response.

UNRWA had previously protested on March 12 when the Israeli military attacked the Ezbet Preparatory Boys' School despite a visible UN flag and symbol on the premises. A bulldozer demolished the entire front wall, gate and playground outbuilding, and most of the windows in the front of school were broken and some classrooms were damaged during the assault that occurred under Israeli control.

"There have been repeated military violations of the sanctity of UNRWA schools during the last 30 months, on the majority of occasions by Israeli forces," the Agency said, noting that this latest assault had come just one week after a 12-year old pupil sitting in an UNRWA school in Khan Younis, Gaza, was hit in the head by a bullet fired from an Israeli position. The child has since died.

WDIE is reproducing below the UNRWA press release of April 3, 2003.

Israeli military forcefully occupies UNRWA school

In the early morning on 2 April, Israeli military forces broke into and occupied a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)'s girls' school in Tulkarem refugee camp in the West Bank, and proceeded to use the school as a detention centre for male residents of the camp between the ages of 15 and 40. The Agency strongly protests this flagrant violation of United Nations privileges and immunities and the continuing denial of UNRWA's access to the school and the camp as a whole, which has been declared a closed military zone.

The occupation of UNRWA's girls' school in Tulkarem is not the first such abuse of UNRWA's humanitarian installations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. For example, in 2002 the Israeli military repeatedly used UNRWA schools as detention centres, and, in some cases, used UNRWA installations as bases from which they launched military operations. In all cases, the Agency protested to the Israeli authorities, but received no response.

Recently, UNRWA had redoubled efforts to liaise with the Israeli Defence Forces in the hope that the Israeli military would respect the right of the Agency to carry out its humanitarian operations without interference and restrictions, a right conferred on UNRWA by the 1946 United Nations Convention on Privileges and Immunities, and by an agreement reached between UNRWA and the Government of Israel in 1967.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter Hansen said: "The occupation of an UNRWA school and its use for military purposes is a violation of international legal norms, and is a discouraging step backwards in UNRWA's continuing efforts to secure humanitarian access in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. I call on the Israeli authorities to leave UNRWA's school and to allow UNRWA access to its other facilities in Tulkarem camp, including a clinic, so that essential services can be restored to the refugees."