EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION OUTSIDE DOWNING ST

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EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION OUTSIDE DOWNING ST

In response to the current wave of US-British repression and killings in Iraq which have claimed the lives of hundreds of people over the last week - Voices UK has called an EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION OUTSIDE DOWNING STREET between 12 NOON and 1.30 PM

            Among the speakers will be activists who have visited Fallujah, Sadr City and Amara over the last seven years as well as Iraqis living in Britain with relatives in Iraq. Over 50 similar protests are taking place across the US.

EMERGENCY CALL FOR SOLIDARITY WITH THE IRAQI PEOPLE

by Eman Ahmed Khammas

Director, International Occupation Watch Centre,

April 8th 2004, Occupied Baghdad

To the peoples of the world and their representatives at the United Nations:

            The Iraqi people call for international solidarity as they resist attacks by US-led Occupation Forces. It is clear that these attacks are designed to terrorise entire populations of Iraqi towns and neighbourhoods.

            According to reports, in Fallujah alone, over three hundred Iraqis have been killed and hundreds more injured since attacks began on Sunday, April 4. There is fighting in Baghdad, particularly in the neighbourhoods of Sadr, Adaamiya, Shula, Yarmok, and the cities and towns of Fallujah, Ramadi, Basrah, Nasiriya, Kerbala, Amarah, Kut, Kufa, Najaf, Diwaniya, Balad, and Baquba. Residences, hospitals, mosques and ambulances trying to transport the injured are being bombed and fired at by Occupation Forces’ guns and tanks.

            Fallujah and Adaamiya are currently under siege, surrounded by Occupation Forces, in contravention of the Geneva Convention that prohibits holding civilian communities under siege. Hospitals do not have access to sufficient medical aid, essential medicine and equipment or blood supplies. In Fallujah, the hospitals have been surrounded by soldiers forcing doctors to establish field hospitals in private homes. Blood donors are not allowed to enter; consequently, mosques in both Baghdad and Fallujah are collecting blood for the injured. Water and electricity have been cut off for the past several days.

            In Sadr City US helicopters have fired rockets into residential areas destroying homes. Although no curfew has officially been imposed, US soldiers have made a practice of aiming tank fire on cars they find moving through the streets after dark. On Tuesday night alone, at least 6 people were killed in this way. US forces continue to occupy and surround all the police stations and the Sadr municipal offices.

            While these attacks have escalated sharply over the past week, they are in no way a new phenomenon in occupied Iraq. The indiscriminate killing of civilians and the refusal to provide people with security, electricity and decent medical infrastructure have characterised the ‘freedom’ that Occupation Authorities have brought to Iraq.

            We call on the international community, civil society and the anti-war/anti-occupation movements to respond to this US-led war of terror with tangible displays of solidarity and support for Iraqi people facing this gruesome manifestation of the occupation.

            Please take to the streets to demand an end to the US-led aggression. Organise protests in front of US consulates and embassies around the world and demand: an immediate end to this massacre; an immediate end to the siege of Iraqi cities and neighbourhoods; immediate access to humanitarian and medical aid organisations seeking to provide assistance to Iraqi people who are living under attack; and an end to the occupation of our nation.