A declaration published mid-September outlines a plan to relieve Iraq of foreign occupation and leave a stable, peaceful nation. It has drawn wide support and endorsement, including from Nobel Prize winners and nominees as well as other well-known figures working for peace from many parts of the world.
The declaration points to the principles existent in international law by which the US-led war that has already cost over a million Iraqi lives and displaced up to six million more can end — indeed, the only way it could end. The declaration has been made available in 10 languages and has been published on hundreds of websites. Its authors seek mainstream dissemination.
Among the 100 initial signatories are former United Nations assistant secretary generals Hans von Sponeck and Denis Halliday, both who resigned rather than administer sanctions they deemed deadly against the Iraqi people, former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, former Indian chief of naval staff, current US Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney, writer and historian Eduardo Galeano, Nobel laureate Harold Pinter, and chairperson of the World Peace Council Socorro Gomes. Prominent Iraqi signatories include Dr Saeed H Hasan, former Iraqi permanent representative to the United Nations, Issam Chalabi, former Iraqi oil minister, Dr Omar Al Kubaisy, senior Iraqi cardiologist, anti-occupation politician and activist on the Iraqi health and medical situation, and other key Iraqi civil society figures.
Abdul Ilah Albayaty, one of the declaration’s authors and host to the gathering from which the declaration issued, commented on the reasoning behind the declaration:
“Since the first months following the US occupation of Iraq in 2003, the Iraqi resistance has frustrated US plans to set up a stable puppet regime and create a base to expand US influence in the region. From that point of view, the occupation has failed despite its enormous firepower. The Iraqi resistance has accomplished this despite its lack of support from surrounding countries and lack of a stable, secure base outside Iraq. This is a major and heroic accomplishment of the Iraqi people.
“By dividing a formerly united Iraq on sectarian grounds,” Albayaty continued, “the US has inflicted much misery on the people of Iraq. In addition, the occupying force has itself created a situation where it then tries to justify the occupation by saying, ‘Without us there will be chaos and civil war.’
“The declaration combines the demands raised by the different resistance organizations that are the true representatives of the Iraqi people. It answers the argument of the occupiers. It shows the whole world a road to peace for Iraq.”
To read the declaration: www.anti-occupation.org
To endorse: www.tlaxcala.es/campagnes.asp
We thought you might be interested in some of the articles about Iraq underneath, published by the BRussells Tribunal.
- Iraq in the Times of Cholera…and Occupation (Sabah Ali, 17 Oct 2008) –
- Response to Thomas Friedman’s article “Dear Iraqi Friends” (Ghazwan Al Mukhtar, 28 September 2008) –
- Index on Afghanistan and Pakistan – Murder & Security, Aug/Sept. ’08 (Sarah Meyer, 22 September 2008) –
- State-Sanctioned Paramilitary Terror in Basra Under British Occupation (Max Fuller, 08 August 2008) –
- An assessment of the conditions in the Kurdish part of Iraq (Kamal Majid, 23 July 2008) –
- The Bush- Maliki Convention is a proof of defeat (Abdul Ilah Al Bayaty, 13 July 2008) –
- The Violent Folly of Humanitarian Interventionism – Western Delusions (Jean Bricmont, 27 May 2008)
Dirk Adriaensens
Member BRussells Tribunal executive committee
Coordinator SOS Iraq
The New Dark Age 
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