VOICES NEWSLETTER (AUGUST 2003)

Sanctions finally end but Iraq handed over to ‘occupying powers’
Iraqi governance?
Voices still need to be heard
Absolute power corrupts
Iraqis are still suffering
Cluster bombs & uxos
Jubilee Iraq
Who are the Iraqi resistance?
War on trial
Corporate Invasion
Letter from Baghdad
New book - ‘Regime Unchanged’
Resources
Ideas for local action
Events

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Sanctions finally end but iraq handed over to ‘occupying powers’



Baghdad: members of the Christian Peace Team protest against the lack of salaries for Iraqi workers, May 2003. ‘Iraqi teacher: forming young minds and future leaders - $0-$20; US soldier: guarding oil ministry - $4000 per month’.

On 22 May 2003 the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1483 lifting all non-military sanctions on Iraq, terminating a policy which, according to UNICEF, had contributed to the death of over half a million Iraqi children and countless other suffering. However, 1483 also handed near-total control of Iraq to the two governments chiefly responsible for this policy: the US and Britain.

1483
The Independent (10th May) noted the yawning gap between US/UK promises and the resolution’s contents:
- Blair promised that neither the US or UK would ‘touch’ Iraq’s oil, but 1483 grants them total control over Iraq’s oil revenues until a new government is established;
- Bush claimed that the UN would have a ‘vital role to play’ after the war, but 1483 gives it no more than an advisory role with the US and Britain taking all the decisions;
- Jack Straw had claimed that the UN would have a ‘vital role to play in respect of weapons inspections’ whilst in 1483 the UN is reduced to begging the US and UK ‘to keep the Council informed’ regarding their search for WMD whilst expressing its own - equally feeble - intention to ‘revisit the mandates’ of UNMOVIC (the UN weapons inspectorate)at some unspecified time in the future.

It is worth examining some of the sweeping powers 1483 grants the US/UK (refered to as ‘the Authority’) in more detail.

The development fund
1483 ‘supports the formation, by the people of Iraq with the help of the Authority...of an Iraqi interim adminis-tration...until an internationally recognised, representative government is established’ and establishes a so-called ‘Development Fund for Iraq’, the contents of which will be ‘disbursed at the direction of the Authority, in consultation with the... interim administration.’

From now on 95% of Iraq’s oil and gas sales will be deposited in the Fund ‘until such time as an internationally recognised, representative government is properly constituted.’ The remaining 5% will be used to pay ‘war reparations’ for the 1991 Gulf War. (Prior to the war the UN diverted 25% of oil-for-food revenues for compensation payments.) ‘Liberation’, it appears, does not extend to liberation from Saddam’s debts.

Oil-for-food
1483 winds down the existing UN humanitarian programme (‘oil-for-food’) which will end by November 2003. All monies left over in the oil-for-food account will be transferred to the Fund, together with all of the financial assets of the regime currently outside the country. An estimated 60% of Iraqis (some 16 million people) are ‘totally dependent’ upon the monthly food ration distributed under oil-for-food (WFP press release, 19 June 2003). What happens to these people, or the ration, after oil-for-food is unclear.

legal immunity
To prevent legal action against the US/UK for selling what is, in reality, stolen property, 1483 grants the US/UK ‘immunity...from [all] legal proceedings’ relating to its sale of Iraq’s oil and gas until the end of 2007.

open-ended
1483 states that the Security Council will ‘review’ its implementation ‘within six months.’ However, unlike the oil-for-food programme, which the Security Council had to vote to renew every six months, almost all of the powers 1483 grants the US/UK have no expiry date. Indeed, to remove these powers would actually require a new UN resolution, which either the US or Britain could veto. So the US/UK as ‘the Authority’ are now free to sell Iraq’s oil - and to spend the proceeds - until such time as there is a new Iraqi Government.

Ironically, 1483 - a resolution that hands over control of Iraq’s finances, economy and political future to the two countries that illegally invaded and occupied it - begins by ‘reaffirming the sovereignty of Iraq.’
crisis continues

The lifting of sanctions has not, by itself, resolved the public health crisis in Iraq (though it was a necessary pre-condition for this to happen). The Bush administra-tion seems more concerned about imposing its own free-market ideology onto Iraq (see p.7) than solving these problems (p.4).

We must maintain international pressure to ensure not just that the immediate health and security crisis is resolved, but that public health in Iraq is restored to pre-sanctions level. Until then, the legacy of sanctions will continue to blight the lives of millions of Iraqis.

On the 10th June the CPA initiated censorship of the press with Order#14 (‘Prohibited Media Activity’). This prohibits media organisations - basically any person or group ‘transmitting information’ - from inciting violence against racial, ethnic or religious groups, or against women or the CPA itself. The penalty for broadcasting prohibited material is up to one years imprisonment or a fine of up to $1000. However, as the Guardian (23 June) observed, the Order is ‘couched in extremely vague terms and could give the US authorities far-reaching powers to interfere with the media and close or suspend newspapers.’ Watch this space.

Bremer has stated that a new Iraqi constitution will be passed by a nationwide referendum though so far he has ‘declined to be specific on the timing of the constitutional process’ (FT, 15 July). Meanwhile the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has called for a ‘clear timetable for the restoration of sovereignty [to the Iraqi people] with specific steps’ for the end of US military occupation. In a report to the Security Council Annan stressed that ‘the day when Iraqis govern themselves must come quickly … if the growing impatience in the country is to be stemmed’ (UN Press Release, 21 July).

voices still need to be heard

Sanctions have ended but, with so many uncertainties over future developments in Iraq, our solidarity with the Iraqi people is needed more than ever. voices uk will continue to provide information and organise protests around Iraqi-related issues and to collaborate with others on more general peace initiatives.

Voices u.s. action
Our sister group in the States has been very active; current projects include: collaborating with the Middle East Children’s Alliance to organise a national bus tour to ‘further education, organizing and action around war and occupation in Iraq and Palestine’ (see Wheels of Justice); maintaining a presence inside Iraq (as they have done since September 2002); and organising a Creative Resistance Summer Camp in New York City for activists to share skills and take part in creative forms of direct action.

Occupation watch
US anti-war coalition United for Peace and Justice is establishing a centre in Baghdad to ‘monitor the military occupation forces and foreign corporations, host international delegations to Iraq, and keep the international community updated about the occupation forces’ activities’. web-site

The centre is supported by an impress-ive Advisory Board of international academics, writers, and human rights advocates, including Phyllis Bennis, Tariq Ali and Milan Rai. Board member Kamil Mahdi describes the project as ‘a critical effort of friendship and solidarity initiated by one of the main anti-war coalitions in the [US], as opposed to the aggression and occupation of their government.’

voices hopes to work closely with Occupation Watch over the coming months. Watch this space!

Absolute power corrupts

Iraqis are still suffering

By Mark MacKinnon, Globe and Mail, June 28th 2003 (edited)

Baghdad - Three-year-old Ibrahim Issam is clearly in pain. Clad in an orange jumpsuit, sitting on his father’s knee in the Central Teaching Hospital’s waiting room, he screams incessantly, unable to express where it hurts. In the already sweltering June heat, his forehead is even hotter to the touch.
His parents think he’s got gastroenteritis, a stomach disease that dehydrates children rapidly and that has plagued this country since the United Nations imposed sanctions here 12 years ago. His sister Aisha, just 18 months old, dozes on the hospital bed behind Ibrahim. She has the same symptoms.
The sanctions are gone now, but children like Ibrahim and Aisha still suffer. The situation, many say, is worse now. Even in big cities like Baghdad, the water remains undrinkable, and in the summer heat, many families have taken to drawing water directly from the polluted Tigris River.

Doctors here agree. In interviews this week, three of Iraq’s top pediatricians said that, although no statistics are available, they believe the rate of child mortality - among the highest in the world during the past 12 years - has risen even higher since Saddam Hussein’s regime fell and the US took over the country.

With the medical system depleted by postwar looting and the slow restoration of basic services, the doctors feel under-equipped to deal with what they expect will be a growing flood of cases like Ibrahim’s and Aisha’s. And in the early summer heat, which often peaks above 45 in the afternoon, infections are spreading like fire.

Before the latest war, the children’s health crisis in Iraq was already staggering. A pair of Canadian doctors, Eric Hoskins and Samantha Nutt, who visited the country in January, estimated that 500,000 of Iraq’s 13 million children were malnourished.

A recent Unicef survey in Baghdad found 7.7 per cent of children under the age of 5 were suffering acute malnu-trition, up from 4 per cent before the war. Complicating matters is the unpredictable security situation in Baghdad and other cities. Many parents, especially those who live in rural areas, are afraid to drive the sometimes dangerous roads into larger cities for hospital care.

“Medicine is coming in now, but we don’t have good security; we don’t have electricity; we don’t have a clean water supply,” said Nazar al-Anbalai, director of the al-Mansur children’s hospital, who said his doctors often have to work by candlelight and consciously skimp on the amount of water they use.
“If this doesn’t change soon, there will be even more of an increase in the number of children’s deaths.”

Three months
Little appears to have improved since MacKinnon’s piece appeared in the Globe. On 8 July the aid agency CARE International issued a press release stating that ‘three months after the fall of Baghdad, Iraq still faces as many problems as it did immediately after the war’, noting that the security situation – ‘the biggest impediment to delivering effective humanitarian aid’ - ‘is getting worse, not better’ and that ‘the risk of a health crisis grows as drinking water remains scarce, temper-atures routinely exceed 40 degrees and hospitals and healthcare centres struggle to provide treatment to sick people.’

Three fold increase
On the 11 July the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported a ‘three-fold increase [in diarrhoea] compared to the same period last year’, noting that this ‘is very suggestive of a large cholera out-break in the Lower South of Iraq’ (WHO briefing, 11 July). While diarrhoea ‘may sound trivial, in Iraq it kills,’ UNICEF spokesman Geoffrey Keele told the French news agency AFP, noting that 70% of child deaths before the war were the result of diarrhoea or respiratory infections (AFP, 8 June)

Thirteen years
Thirteen years of war and sanctions have left Iraq’s basic infrastructure – both physical and administrative - in tatters. CARE estimates that about two million tonnes of raw sewage are being dumped into Iraq’s rivers every day, four times the amount before the war (UN OCHA press release, 17 July) and most homes in Baghdad still only have erratic electricity for about 10 hours a day (Telegraph, 18 July). The US – which is currently spending $1 bn a week on the occupation - has so far allocated a mere $2.4 bn to ‘rebuilding’ Iraq.

Security
On 1 June three leading aid agencies – CAFOD, Christian Aid and Oxfam - warned that the US and Britain were failing to meet their obligations under international law to restore public order and safety in Iraq (1 June, Independent on Sunday). According to a CAFOD spokesperson this failure was ‘severely hampering the humanitarian effort.’ Things appear to be little better now.

In the South – occupied by UK troops – ‘lawlessness and a climate of fear continued to dominate the lives of people in Basra in late June’ according to a 4 July report from Amnesty International. The report noted that Basra’s residents ‘were still suffering the consequences of the British forces’ failure to re-establish security during the first weeks after they entered the city.’

Women’s liberation?
A 16 July report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated that ‘the failure of Iraqi and U.S.-led occupation authorities to provide public security in [Baghdad] lies at the root of a widespread fear of rape and abduction among women and their families…preventing them from participating in public life at a crucial time in their country’s history’.

HRW reported that, ‘women and girls today in Baghdad are scared, and many are not going to schools or jobs or looking for work.’ Other anecdotal evidence suggests that women are feeling an increased pressure to wear the hajab.

Women’s participation in public life in general is under threat. Only three of the new Governing Council are women. With the overhaul of the constitution, legal, education and other public systems, women’s voices need to be heard now, before it is too late.

Act Together - a UK group of Iraqi and non-Iraqi women - is campaigning on the situation of women in occupied Iraq. Contact: information@acttogether.org.

Cluster bombs & uxos


photo: Mines Advisory Group

Since the end of the war over 1000 children have been injured by weapons such as cluster bombs dropped by the US/UK, or by the thousands of tonnes of munitions stockpiled and abandoned by Iraqi forces in public buildings and residential areas, according to UNICEF (17 July 2003).

According to UNICEF’s representative in Iraq, Carol de Rooy, the US and Britain ‘have a clear obligation under international law to remove these dangers from communities.’

In some neighbourhoods small cluster munitions, some shaped like tiny bottles with short ribbons and others that are yellow with tissue parachutes, litter gardens and roof tops.

The Pentagon has admitted using nearly 1500 air-dropped cluster bombs during the war though an unnamed US defence official told the Los Angeles Times that the US does not keep track of ground-launched cluster munitions.

On the 24 April the UK MoD admitted that its forces had used 2,100 L20A1 cluster munition artillery shells and at least 66 air-dropped BL-755 cluster bombs (Human Rights Watch, 29 April). The manufacturers of the L20A1 – which contains 49 bomblets - claim that it has a failure rate of less than 2%. The BL-755 on the other hand produced a large number of unexploded duds in combat operations in Kuwait and Yugoslavia/Kosovo. There have also been reports that the UK used Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, which have a bomblet dud rate of 16% or more.

The MoD later admitted that British troops had used cluster bombs in built-up areas (Independent, 30 May 2003).

According to Oxfam ‘cluster bombs … can by their very nature only be indiscriminate’ and their use is therefore illegal (Oxfam press release, 20 March 2003).

Based on their monitoring of international press reports Iraq Body Count estimates that at least 200 civilian deaths have already been reliably reported as being due to cluster bombs, with up to a further 172 less firmly linked deaths that also involved other munitions (6 May 2003).

The day cluster bombs rained on babylon
By Robert Fisk, Independent, 3 April 2003 (edited)

The wounds are vicious and deep, a rash of scarlet spots on the back and thighs or face, the shards of shrapnel from the cluster bombs buried an inch or more in the flesh. The wards of the Hillah teaching hospital are proof that something illegal – something quite outside the Geneva Conventions – occurred in the villages around the city once known as Babylon.

The wailing children, the young women with breast and leg wounds, the 10 patients upon whom doctors had to perform brain surgery to remove metal from their heads, talk of the days and nights when the explosives fell “like grapes” from the sky. Cluster bombs, the doctors say – and the detritus of the air raids around the hamlets of Nadr and Djifil and Akramin and Mahawil and Mohandesin and Hail Askeri shows that they are right.

Were they American or British aircraft that showered these villages with one of the most lethal weapons of modern warfare? The 61 dead who have passed through the Hillah hospital since Saturday night cannot tell us. The teaching college received more than 200 wounded since Saturday night – the 61 dead are only those who were brought to the hospital or who died during or after surgery, and many others are believed to have been buried in their home villages – and, of these, doctors say about 80 per cent were civilians.

Outraged claims from Iraqi officials at the abuse of human rights sound like a bell with a very hollow ring. But something terrible happened around Hillah this week, something unforgivable and something contrary to international law. One hesitates, as I say, to talk of human rights in this land of torture but if the Americans and British don’t watch out, they are likely to find themselves condemned for what they have always – and rightly – accused Iraq of: war crimes.

Jubilee iraq

The cancellation of Iraq’s debt and ‘war reparations’ payments (estimated at over $150 bn) is essential if ordinary Iraqis are to begin to reverse the devastating effects of war and sanctions. A new report from Oxfam (A Fresh Start for Iraq: The case for debt relief, May 2003) supports such a move.

‘Much, perhaps all’ of Iraq’s debt is ‘odious’, the report notes, in so far as:
- ‘borrowing was undertaken by a regime with no popular mandate’;
- ‘debt money was not used to benefit the population’;
- and ‘creditors acted in the knowledge that lending was being used to finance activities – such as gross corruption, invasion, human-rights abuses, or genocide – damaging to human welfare.

The report concludes that ‘even if Iraq could pay the economic costs’ – which it cannot – ‘the people of Iraq should not bear the burden of debts accumulated in their name by a tyrannical ruler.’

Who are the iraqi resistance?

‘it’s war’
On the 16 July an explosion killed a US soldier in Iraq, bringing the death-toll of US service personnel killed in combat since the beginning of the invasion to 147, the total number of US fatalities during the 1991 Gulf War (FT, 16 July). More than 30 US/UK service personnel have been killed in conflict situations since 1 May, when George Bush declared that ‘major combat operations’ in Iraq had ended.
On the same day the US General in charge of military operations in Iraq, John Abizaid, announced that the US was now fighting a ‘classical guerrilla-type campaign’- a phrase the US had previously avoided.
‘I believe there’s mid-level Ba’athist, Iraqi intelligence service people, Special Security Organisation people, Special Republican Guard people that have organised at the regional level in cellular structure. It’s low-intensity conflict in our doctrinal terms, but it’s war, however you describe it,’ Abizaid told reporters.

disaffected people
However, the Guardian notes, such an analysis ‘bears surprisingly little resemblance to the views of other sources, including US army commanders in the field, leading some to speculate that there is more spin than substance to them.

‘Colonel Eric Wesley, executive officer of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade, believes most of the attackers are motivated by current grievances rather than lost privilege. Many are hired guns, working for profit.

‘ “They are disaffected people from various parts of society,” he said at his base near Falluja. “They may be impover-ished, or somehow afflicted by the war and the coalition, wanting revenge for the loss of a family member. They may be people who’ve been taught their whole life to hate the West and have extremist views.” ’

6:1
As at 3 July some 178 US and British personnel had been wounded in attacks since Bush’s speech, yielding a ratio of wounded to killed of 6:1 – double the ‘usual’ ration in modern warfare of 3:1.

According to Paul Rogers, Professor of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford, ‘the reason for this is almost certainly that US troops exposed to attacks are commonly patrolling in armoured vehicles and are wearing body armour that provides effective protection against life-threatening injuries from light arms and grenade fragments. As a result, many soldiers have their lives saved but are suffering serious injuries.’ (Open Democracy, 3 July)

This in turn ‘lends credence to reports of large numbers of attacks on US units in central Iraq, with as many as a dozen attacks on patrols every day’, suggesting that ‘the US and Britain could be getting involved in a very difficult situation that may grow into a full-scale anti-occupation insurgency.’

70,000
Noting that perhaps as many as 20,000 Iraqis were killed and 50,000 injured during the three week war – many of them in and around Baghdad – Rogers observes that ‘most of those 70,000 killed or injured would have had a network of family and friends running to millions of people…an aspect that appears to be entirely ignored by most analysts but may come to be seen as underlying much of the opposition now in evidence.’

However, even if it turns out that the current attacks have a ‘core leadership’, whose elimination or capture could terminate the current wave of attacks, the respite may only be temporary. For, as Rogers observes, ‘it is blindingly obvious that Washington does not envisage allowing a truly independent and democratic Iraq to emerge. After all, one of the first requirements of such a government would be for the US forces to leave forthwith.

‘If the current violence dies down, it may take a year or more for this realisation to have its full impact within Iraq, leading to a resurgence of a more deep-seated and pervasive opposition. On present trends, though, we may not even experience a temporary easing of violence.’

A thought from Fisk
'The United States believes that ...once the Hussein family is decapitated, the resistance will end. But ... many Iraqis were reluctant to support the resistance for fear that an end to American occupation would mean the return of the ghastly old dictator.

' If he and his sons are dead, the chances are that the opposition to the American-led occupation will grow rather than diminish - on the grounds that with Saddam gone, Iraqis will have nothing to lose by fighting the Americans.' (Robert Fisk, Independent, 23 July)




War on trial

The court cases of people arrested for anti-war protests are being heard throught the land. The cases give protesters the opportunity to argue lawful excuse for their actions, as they were acting to prevent a greater crime.

As we go to press the trial of Ulla Roder is being heard in Kirkaldy, Scotland. Ulla has remained behind bars since March for damage caused to a Tornado jet at RAF Leuchars. At Faslane, Gillian Sloan and Dave Rolstone were given fines in June for spray-painting a nuclear weapons-carrying submarine.

A trial date has yet to be set for 12 people who took action against the B-52 bombers at RAF Fairford. On 20 June the judge recognised that before any cases can proceed, a pronouncement on the legality or illegality of the war must be made. The 12 include Phil Pritchard and Toby Olditch, who were bailed after being remanded since their action in March.

On 19 June, 21 anti-war protesters were fined for highway obstruction after a two day court hearing in which each put their case for anti-war action. The activists had been arrested on 19 January at the blockade of Northwood military HQ organised by voices and others.

A number of the protestors have refused to pay their fines. Michael Nendick, from Brighton, said, “we took our action believing the government was planning not only an immoral act, but one that was also illegal. We may see a higher court agree with us if Tony Blair or anyone else are ever indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC)." The ICC identifies military aggression as a crime.

The magistrate rejected the protesters’ argument that their obstruction of the highway had been lawful because it had been an attempt to impede the government in its preparation for war. The magistrate stated that there were plenty of lawful ways to protest at a government’s behaviour. "The magistrate seemed to have made up his mind before listening to our evidence," said Michael. "Many of us have written to our MPs, the Foreign Office and Tony Blair, and gone on marches and signed petitions. We have found that registering protest is not enough. People like Gandhi teach us that power resides in the people and that, when enough people refuse to co-operate with a government, it must listen.”

See here for more information on ‘Prisoners for Peace’.

Corporate invasion

No to Empire: activists in San Fransicso at the Shutdown Bechtel actions. Bechtel was involved in water privatisation in Bolivia which made the water so expensive that many couldn’t afford it. Protests by Bolivians were aggressively put down but the people won the day and Bechtel’s contract was cancelled. Bechtel are now suing Bolivia for lost profits.

While many Iraqis have lost their jobs or are not being paid their salaries, some of the world’s biggest corpor-ations, and many smaller companies, are seeking to benefit from the occupation on a larger scale. The two main issues are the reconstruction contracts and privatisation of the Iraqi economy.
The concerns about the reconstruction are better known, with the likes of Bechtel, Halliburton and its subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root, Dyncorp and other US corporations with many a link to the White House administration or a dodgy record. The lack of competitive bidding, the political agendas being progressed with these appointments and the claiming of Iraq’s natural resources gives many cause for concern. The authors of ‘Iraq Reconstruction Tracker’ (Middle East Report: America’s Iraq ) suggest, ‘parasitic contractors and investors seek to extract resources and do short-term construction that sustains the occupation of Iraq, as well as buy property while the currency is in flux, only to sell at a higher price upon leaving the country. Sustainable develop-ment, on the other hand, might include industries providing permanent employment to Iraqis, agriculture and building the roads, power systems, telecommunications and computer networks that would serve these long-term goals....Some early signs are discouraging.’

The appointment of Dan Amstutz, former senior executive of Cargill, the biggest grain exporter in the world, as head of agricultural reconstruction in Iraq is one such sign. ‘In a statement on Amstutz’s appointment, Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman said that he would “help us achieve our national objective of creating a democratic and prosperous Iraq while at the same time best utilize resources of our farmers and good industry in the effort, both for the interim and the long term.” ...[furthermore] the US and Britain have created a reconstruction structure almost solely of foreign expertise, ignoring the Iraqis who rebuilt their oil industry with no international assistance under sanctions and the idea that local expertise may offer ingenious low-budget strategies to outside experts.’

The other area of concern is privatisation of the Iraqi economy and changes that will be very difficult for an Iraqi government to reverse. The Wall Street Journal (1 May) reported that ‘the Bush administration has drafted sweeping plans to remake Iraq's economy in the U.S. image...Execution of the plan - which is expected to be complicated and possibly contentious - will fall largely to private American contractors working alongside a smaller team of U.S. officials. The initial plans are laid out in a confidential 100-page U.S. contracting document titled “Moving The Iraqi Economy From Recovery to Sustainable Growth.” The consulting work could be valued at as much as $70 million for the first year.’

The document was first circulated in February to financial consultants - the main initial beneficiaries of the plan. The usual players in this field - the World Bank and the IMF are barely mentioned. The consultants would help support “private sector involvement in strategic sectors, including privatization, asset sales, concessions, leases and management con-tracts, especially in the oil and supporting industries”. The document suggests a year would be spent building a consensus for industry privatization and assets would be transferred over the following three years.

Letter from Baghdad

by Joanne Baker, Pandora DU Research Project, Baghdad June 30, 2003 (edited)

Why is Baghdad suffering? This question is on everybody's lips. Electricity, we have heard, has been restored in all other towns. Only Baghdad is being denied this basic life support. As the heat increases, so does the desperation and bitterness of the people.

There is a total incomprehension that America, the world's greatest superpower cannot provide in three months even basic services that the government under Saddam was able to restore within one month (after the 1991 Gulf War). This is worsened by the fact that expectations have been so much greater. People believed that, with the fall of the regime, the life-numbing deprivation of previous years would be over. Instead they have never had it so bad. As one taxi-driver asked of us,"what have the Americans come here for? There is no electricity, no water, no petrol. The roads are blocked. There is no security anymore. Why have they come?"

I am asked how I find Baghdad now. How has it changed? It is perhaps best described as a city in trauma. Still reeling from the appalling bombardment, it is now experiencing the shock of occupation and anarchy. People are crying out for help with their personal tragedies but there is nowhere to turn. An elderly banker told me yesterday that he had approached the Americans for compensation for the bombing of his house and car, the death of his son and his daughter-in-law's miscarriage. He was told by the Americans that they had already received two million such claims and they assured him that every single one was rele-gated to the rubbish bin. Despite this, in his humbling generosity, he welcomed us to Iraq and invited us to his home. In this one aspect it seems that the people of Iraq have not changed. Their warmth and gener-osity of spirit is demonstrably apparent.

During the day, convoys of American tanks patrol the streets, manned by what can only be described as scared children.

"Pathetic!" my friend exclaims. They would be if they were not so extremely dangerous. Now even those Iraqis who initially welcomed them are saying that if things continue as they are they will not hesitate to take up a gun and fight back.

The nights are filled with sporadic gunfire. The Americans have imposed a curfew which starts at 11pm. But the people have their own self-imposed curfew. No one leaves their house after dark. Everyone is buying a gun for self protection. A Kalashnikov was recently selling for as little as one dollar! No one really seems to know who the looters and muggers are. Many speak of the thousands of criminals and psychopaths released from the prisons by Saddam Hussein. Others blame the recent selling of alcohol and drugs openly on the streets, something previously unheard of in a Muslim country. Some of the killings are undoubtedly the result of old feuds and quarrels. Whatever the truth, the greatest cry is for someone to take control.

To compound the sense of insecurity is the complete lack of communications in Baghdad. The destruction of the civilian telecommunication system is undoubtedly a denial of human rights. In my own case if I wish to contact anybody at all, I have to take a taxi to their home or workplace and hope that they will be there. It is too dangerous to travel anywhere on one's own, especially as a woman, so someone else has to accompany me. If the person I wish to see is not there, a whole new arrangement has to be made. It is easier and quicker to communicate with people abroad than with those living within Baghdad.

For the first time in Baghdad, I have seen long queues at petrol stations - due to a lack of electricity to pump the petrol. Drivers are miraculously managing - creating a strange kind of order in chaos - and despite the extreme heat inside the cars, I have yet to see any sign of punch ups or angry words.
As temperatures reach the mid 40s centigrade, they greatest hardship is water shortage due to the minimal power generation. People arrive at work in the mornings saying "We are so tired. We haven't slept. The nights are so hot and our children have been crying from the pain of thirst. Is this the human rights Britain and America promised us?" It is unspeakable that they are being left in this condition. It is to their extraordinary credit that people turn up to work at all. There is very little absenteeism. Rubbish is being collected, deliveries are being made, teachers and doctors are carrying on their work. This despite absolutely no guarantee of salary.

There is no doubt that most people are glad to be rid of the terrors associated with the previous regime. But what they have now is different form of terror and human rights abuse. The message has sunk in that the US has no interest in their welfare and that this is a blatant occupation. Rumour has it that the US troops have written on their tanks, "Our soldiers lives versus water and electricity!" If Britain and the US do not understand the implications of their current policy there will be extraordinarily difficult times ahead.

Joanne is available to speak at meetings - contact voices for more info.

New book - ‘Regime Unchanged’


voices founder Milan Rai has been burning the midnight oil to produce a sequel to his acclaimed War Plan Iraq (Verso, 2002). Here he summarises his new book Regime Unchanged: Why the War Was Wrong

Regime Unchanged is more than an update of War Plan Iraq. As well as filling in the story of the road to war, and its aftermath, from September 2002 to May 2003, Regime Unchanged probes more deeply into the historical roots of US and British foreign policy.

Regime Unchanged is divided into two halves. The first half deals with the process leading up to the ejection of the inspectors on 17 March (President Bush’s ultimatum to Saddam Hussein to leave the country was coupled with a parallel order to the UN inspectors to leave immediately). Building on the ARROW Anti-War Briefings, Regime Unchanged examines how the US designed Resolution 1441 to be rejected by Iraq, and, after the failure of that gambit, steadily undermined and ridiculed the UN inspectors in order to pave the way for war. Crucially, Regime Unchanged documents how, after securing considerable (pro-active) co-operation from Baghdad, the inspectors were on the verge of a new and decisive phase of inspections when they were thrown out of Iraq by Washington. The inspectors actually presented a plan of action to the Security Council on the very day that President Bush ordered them to halt their work.

The other half of the book is concerned with the ‘regime change argument’, demonstrating how the US had pursued a policy of ‘regime stabilization and leadership change’ since 1991, and [how] this policy of seeking a military coup leading to a continuation of the Ba‘athist system was pursued even up to the beginning of the war. The build-up to war was designed to provoke a coup; the war strategy was designed to provoke a coup; the embedding of Western reporters in the invasion force was designed to provoke a coup.

In the first month after the war, the US and UK restored to power Saddam’s bureaucrats, Saddam’s police, Saddam’s judges, and Saddam’s generals (one Republican Guard general is still in charge of a governorate north of Baghdad, according to the FT, despite the phoney de-Ba‘athification order). Regime Unchanged also explains why this policy was pursued, and how it has historical precedents in the phoney de-nazification in Germany and Japan after the Second World War.

to order
Order advance copies of Regime Unchanged at a discount before 20 August. Please send cheques before 20 August for £8.50 (inc p&p) made out to ‘ARROW PUBLICATIONS’, to JNV, 29 Gensing Road, St Leonards on Sea, East Sussex TN38 0HE. The book will cost £10.95 when it is published by Pluto in September.

thanks to mil
After five years in the post, Milan is stepping down as joint co-ordinator of voices to concentrate on writing (another book is already planned!) and the new JNV anti-war network (see below). It is difficult to summarise Mil’s contribution to voices – without him we simply wouldn’t exist or have accomplished a tiny fraction of our activities over the past five years. His energy, commitment and acute analytic powers will be sorely missed.

resources

‘America’s Iraq’
The Summer 2003 edition of Middle East Report, America’s Iraq ‘examines some of the real-world obstacles blocking realization of the war party’s expansive vision for Iraq and the region’ with an article on ‘World Oil Markets and the Invasion of Iraq’ and an ‘Iraq Reconstruction Tracker.’ Copies should be available from the office soon. Partially available for download here.

‘Weapons of Mass Deception. The Uses of Propaganda in Bush’s War on Iraq’
by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, £6.99. Must-read account of how the US PR industry sold the war to the American public from the authors of Toxic Sludge is Good for You!. Short, well-written and very informative. ‘A major contribution for those who want to take control of their own future’ Noam Chomsky. Available from (some) good bookshops or from the voices office.

web-sites
Occupation Watch
The web-site of United for Peace and Justice’s Occupation Watch project. Currently consists of an excellent selection of media articles arranged under headings such as ‘Conduct of Occupation Forces’, ‘Democracy and Self-Determination’ and ‘Resistance to the Occupation.’

Jubilee Iraq
The web-site for campaigners on Iraq’s debt and reparations payments. Packed full of information and constantly updated.

Blogistonpost
A bit of an unusual one this. A web-log focussing almost exclusively on Iraq’s reconstruction contracts. Added to on a nearly daily basis.

Future of Iraq Portal
A fantastic set of links to Iraq-related sites in English, arranged under the broad category headings of ‘News’, ‘Politics’ and ‘Issues’. All the other web-sites listed here are linked to from this site so add it to your favourites!

Electronic Iraq
A joint project of Voices in the Wilderness US and the Electronic Intifada web-site creators. Well designed and updated daily with a well-chosen selection of articles drawn from a wide range of sources, both mainstream and alternative. Also runs two low-volume news lists: Electronic Iraq News (about the site) and Weekday Press Picks (about Iraq and Israel/Palestine).

Iraq Body Count
Web-site set up ‘to establish an independent and comprehensive public database of media-reported civilian deaths in Iraq resulting directly from military actions by the USA and its allies in 2003.’ Modelled on a similar project for Afghanistan. Serious information and analysis and a well-designed site. As we go to press IBC estimates that between 6,000 and 8,000 Iraqi civilians have died.

JNV network
A new anti-war network is being set up to enable local anti-war groups and indiv-iduals to share ideas, information and campaigning materials, and to provide a forum for them to democratically debate and decide strategy and tactics. See here or 0845 458 9571.

Eyewitness Iraq
Former voices delegate and co-founder of the Pandora DU Project, Joanne Baker, has just returned from a month-long trip to Iraq. Jo is eager to speak to groups across the country if they can cover her travel expenses. Contact 0117 902 6534 or email pduproject@yahoo.co.uk.

Ideas for local action

‘Nose-in’
The road to war was paved with lies – and not just about Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The Government also lied to us about:
· the threat posed by Iraq;
· Iraq’s links to terrorism;
· the legal status of the war;
· and, crucially, the US and British governments’ motives for going to war (ie. that it was about ‘disarmament’ or ‘human rights’, rather than oil and power).

Don’t let them get away with it!

Get together with some friends and hold a ‘nose-in’ in your local area to expose Tony ‘Pinocchio’ Blair. Invite the press, they should love it! Contact the office for a ‘nose-in’ pack, including a briefing on media work, a sample press release and leaflet, Glen Rangwala’s briefing 36 Lies that Helped Launch the War and a Pinocchio nose template!

Cluster bomb action
Hundreds of civilians were killed by cluster bombs during the war and many more have been killed or injured since by unexploded ordnance, including cluster bomblets (see p.5).

Why not get hold of some free ‘Clear Up Clusters’ balloons from Landmine Action (tel. 0207 820 0222 or email info@landmineaction.org) and hold an awareness raising event/publicity stunt in your area? An info. pack including a sample press release, leaflet and a briefing on dealing with the media are available from the office (see back page).

Put Bush and Blair on trial!
Why not put Bush and Blair on trial in your local area? With a few props (Bush and Blair masks, a home-made judge’s wig, some red ‘robes’ and a cardboard ‘dock’) and a script you could have yourself an impressive – and thought-provoking piece of street theatre.

Memorial to the Iraqi dead
September 19th is 6 months from the day that the invasion of Iraq started. Many thousands of Iraqi civilians and soldiers have died. A vigil will be held in London (see events) but if you can’t get to it, why not organise one in your area?