|
Comment on this article |
Email this Article
|
|
News :: International Relations |
|
Independent Iraqis Oppose Bush's War |
Current rating: 0 |
by Jonathan Steele
(No verified email address) |
05 Mar 2003
|
|
Not every group takes US cash. Some worry about their people |
A new myth has emerged in the pro-war camp's propaganda arsenal. Iraqi exiles support the war, they claim, and none took part in last month's march through central London. So if the peaceniks and leftwingers who joined the protest had the honesty to listen to the true voice of the Iraqi people they would never denounce Bush's plans for war again.
Wrong, and wrong. A large number of Iraqis were among the million-member throng, including two key independent political groups. They carried banners denouncing Saddam Hussein (thereby echoing the sentiments of many non-Iraqis since this was not a protest by pro-Saddam patsies, as the pro-war people also falsely claim). They represented important currents in the Iraqi opposition, and ones whom the Americans have repeatedly tried to persuade to join the exiles' liaison committee.
"No way," says Dr Haider Abas, London spokesman of Da'wa, Iraq's moderate Islamic party. "When we met Zalmay Khalilzad (the US special envoy for Iraq) we told him we didn't want to give a cover to US military operations. It's not our role. We won't be respected by our people."
His party has other reservations. It fears the US will retain control of Iraq long after Saddam is toppled and will not hand power to Iraqis for months to come - and then only to its placemen. Da'wa also doubts US plans for ethnically based federalism, arguing that this will create the risk of Balkan-style discrimination and pogroms, when the reality of Iraq is that every major city is culturally mixed. Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds and Arabs are found everywhere.
Saddam's repression cost Da'wa thousands of its members over the past two decades. It argued for human rights in Iraq long before Washington and London stopped backing Saddam and took up the cause - another reason why it distrusts US motives. Dr Abas says there is a paradox in that while his party opposes the war he believes many Iraqis inside the country have become so desperate that they may support it. His argument reflects the psychological dilemma which keeps Iraqis awake at night. "People in hell think nothing can be worse. They just want to end it. But we see the bigger picture as well as fearing it will lead to death and destruction for our families at home. We have two problems with the United States. First, its track record. In 1991, when the aim was simply to get Saddam out of Kuwait, they destroyed the infrastructure of the country. People couldn't understand why they bombed power stations and bridges all over Iraq."
His other doubt is over US intentions. One camp in Washington, he feels, wants to rebuild Iraq. The other wants to keep it undemocratic by only removing Saddam and his closest colleagues. "We don't know which camp will win," he says. In the meantime, any Iraqi group which ties its flag to a foreign invader's mast without any guarantee of its postwar intentions loses its patriotic and democratic credentials.
Salam Ali, another marcher and spokesman for the Iraqi Communist party, has similar criticisms. The ICP, the biggest party in Iraq before Saddam Hussein's regime came to power, also lost tens of thousands of its cadres when the Iraqi president turned against it. Its strength cannot be reliably assessed, but its Da'wa rivals concede it has widespread support among Iraqis of all classes. Ali has just returned from northern Iraq where his party's central committee was meeting. They turned down yet another US invitation to come out in support of the looming war and join the coordinating committee to work with Iraq's postwar US governor. "We reject the war on principled and moral grounds as well as being the worst and most destructive alternative," the party said.
The ICP supports the approach taken by France and Germany but says it should be integrated into a broader framework for restoring democratic rights in Iraq in line with earlier UN security council resolutions. These are no less important than the recent resolution, 1441, which concentrates on disarmament and ignores human rights. The party calls for a genuinely independent conference of the opposition groups.
Like Da'wa, the ICP opposes the economic sanctions on Iraq which the United States and Britain continue to back in spite of the hardship they have caused to ordinary Iraqis but not the regime. "We want sanctions lifted and replaced by an effective UN mechanism for controlling Iraq's oil revenue for the benefit of people. We said the Oil for Food program would strengthen Saddam's hand," says Salam Ali. "Sanctions have crushed people and weakened their will to resist. If they are lifted, people can start living and thinking politics again."
Most parties on the opposition committee set up under Khalilzad's pressure last week are paid by the US government. Da'wa and the ICP have not succumbed. Pro-war pundits who claim to know the views of Iraqi exiles should check they are not listening to opinions made in Washington.
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ |
